1?1 


Slanti&oofos  of 
V 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


ATHENS 

showing  Ancient  Sites 

Scale,  1:12,000 
Yards  Metres 
o    50  100      200       300    o    50  100       2<p°  3Q° 


(After  the  Plan  in  Ernest  A.  Gardner's  Ancient  Athens.) 


LIFE 

IN 

ANCIENT  ATHENS 


THE  SOCIAL  AND  PUBLIC  LIFE  OF  A  CLASSICAL 
ATHENIAN  FEOM  DAY  TO  DAY 


BY 

T.  G.  TUCKER 

LITT.D.   (CAMB. ),   HON.   LITT.D.  (DUBLIN) 
PROFESSOR  OF  CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MELBOURNE 


HOtttlOtt 

MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Limited 

NEW  YORK :  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1907 


All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1906 
THE  MAC  MILL  AN  COMPANY 

First  Edition  January  1907 
Reprinted  May  1907 


PREFACE 


The  aims  which  have  been  chiefly  borne  in  mind  during  the 
writing  of  this  unpretentious  volume  are  those  of  clearness 
and  accuracy.  I  have  sought  to  leave  an  impression  true 
and  sound,  so  far  as  it  goes,  and  also  vivid  and  distinct.  The 
style  adopted  has  therefore  been  the  opposite  of  the  pedantic, 
utilising  any  vivacities  of  method  which  are  consistent  with 
truth  of  fact. 

It  is  perhaps  a  platitude  to  urge  that  there  can  be  little 
lucidity  among  an  accumulation  of  relatively  unimportant,  if 
erudite,  detail.  The  experience  of  every  teacher  or  listener 
will  establish  that  point.  One  cannot  see  the  wood  for  the 
trees.  It  has  therefore  seemed  good  to  select  from  the  avail- 
able material — which  is  sufficiently  extensive — those  matters 
which  count  for  most.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  elaborate 
or  refine,  or  otherwise  to  emulate  the  dictionaries  of  antiquities. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  claimed  that  there  are  incorporated 
unobtrusively  in  the  following  simple  chapters  the  results  of 
all  due  study  of  the  latest  research,  as  well  as  the  conclusions 
of  many  years  of  professional  intimacy  with  Athenian  antiquity. 

Had  I  been  aware  of  the  existence  of  any  book  covering 
the  same  ground  as  the  present,  I  should  scarcely  have  sought 
publication.  There  are,  indeed,  a  number  of  works,  and  some 
of  conspicuous  excellence,  dealing  with  Greek  life,  or  with 
phases  of  Greek  life,  in  general.  But  I  am  aware  of  none 
which  treats  solely  of  the  one  most  interesting  and  important 
period  of  the  one  most  interesting  and  important  community. 
Nor  am  I  aware  of  any  which  has  in  view  precisely  the  same 

v 


VI 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


class  of  readers  for  whom  this  is  primarily  intended.  The 
admirable  little  work  of  Professor  Gulick,  The  Life  of  the  Ancient 
Greeks,  though  necessarily  containing  a  good  deal  of  the  same 
detail,  is  written  on  different  lines  and  with  a  different  scope. 

Obligation  has  been  inevitable  to  the  following  standard 
works  : — 

Daremberg  and  Saglio,  Diclionnaire  des  Antiquites  Grccqucs  et  Eomaines. 
Baumeister,  Denkmaler  des  klassischen  Altertums. 
Smith,  Dictionary  of  Greek  mid  Roman  Antiquities. 
Becker-Goll,  Chariklcs. 

P.  Gardner  and  Jevons,  Manual  of  Greek  Antiquities. 

Guhl  and  Koner,  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 

Gilbert,  Greek  Constitutional  Antiquities  (English  translation). 

Haigh,  The  Attic  Theatre. 

E.  A.  Gardner,  Ancient  Athens. 

E.  A.  Gardner,  Handbook  of  Greek  Sculpture. 

Grote,  History  of  Greece. 

I  am  also  indebted  for  some  pregnant  hints  to — 

Ridgeway,  Early  Age  of  Greece. 

J.  E.  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  Greek  Religion. 

Mahaffy,  Social  Life  in  Greece. 

I  have  felt  no  difficulty  in  accepting  Professor  E.  A.  Gardner's 
view  of  the  harbours  of  the  Peiraeus  and  of  the  Long  Walls  : 
the  third  or  south  wall,  which  appears  on  the  plan  at  p.  12,  in 
my  opinion  never  existed. 

I  am  very  greatly  indebted  to  Professor  Percy  Gardner,  the 
General  Editor  of  this  Series.  To  his  special  and  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  most  recent  discoveries  in  this  field  I  owe 
a  number  of  valuable  corrections.  His  familiarity  with  the 
whole  store  of  ancient  illustrations  has  also  enabled  him  to 
modify  and  improve  my  own  selection  to  such  an  extent  that, 
in  this  particular,  the  book  may  be  said  to  owe  more  to  him 
than  to  me.  How  highly  such  a  service  must  be"  estimated  by 
a  writer  so  far  removed  from  the  centre  needs  no  elaborate 
statement. 

T.  G.  T. 


July  1906. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGES 

Introductory       .         .         .         .         .         .         .  1-7 

Meaning  of  the  term  Greece,  1  ;  Differences  of  Greek  races,  2  ; 
Athens  of  the  classical  period,  4. 

CHAPTER  II 

General  Features  of  Athens  and  its  Environment  .  8-17 

Dependence  of  ancient  peoples  on  their  environment,  8  ;  soil, 
products,  and  climate  of  Attica,  10  ;  situation  and  topo- 
graphy of  Athens,  11. 

CHAPTER  III 

Public  Buildings,  Streets,  etc.  ....  18-32 

Acropolis,  18  ;  colonnades,  26  ;  roofed  buildings.  28  ;  houses  and 
streets,  29  ;  water-supply,  30  ;  naming  of  streets,  32. 

CHAPTER  IV 

Citizens,  Outlanders,  Slaves  :  Women  .  .  .  33-53 

Classes  of  Athenian  society,  33  ;  nature  of  citizenship,  36  ;  quali- 
fications for  citizenship,  37  ;  Outlanders,  40  ;  treatment  of 
slaves,  42  ;  sources  of  slaves,  45  ;  employment  and  numbers 
of  slaves,  46  ;  public  slaves,  48  ;  social  inequality  of  citizens, 
48  ;  attitude  towards  manual  work,  49  ;  position  of  women, 
51. 

vii 


viii 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAPTER  V 

PAGES 

House  and  Furniture     ......  54-66 

Smallness  of  private  houses,  54  ;  plan  of  typical  house,  56  ; 
vestibule  and  porter,  58  ;  main  court,  60  ;  upper  story,  62  ; 
chimneys  and  decoration,  63  ;  chairs  and  couches,  64  ; 
tables,  chests,  braziers,  etc.,  65. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Social  Day  oe  a  Typical  Citizen  (till  Dinner)  .  67-89 

Hour  of  rising,  67  ;  dress,  69  ;  foot  covering,  75  ;  rings  and 
sticks,  77  ;  visits  to  the  market,  78  ;  to  the  banker,  81  ;  to 
the  barber,  82  ;  methods  of  telling  the  time,  84;  luncheon, 
85  ;  visit  to  the  gymnasia,  85  ;  the  bath,  88. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Citizen's  Social  Day  :  Dinner,  etc.     ....  90-100 

Company  at  dinner,  90  ;  moderation  in  eating,  91  ;  uninvited 
guests,  92  ;  dinner,  93  ;  symposium,  95  ;  poor  men's  diet, 
98  ;  fast  life,  99. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Woman's  Life  and  Fashions      ....  101-116 

Seclusion  of  women,  101  ;  education  and  early  life,  102  ;  marriage, 
104  ;  ceremonies  of  the  wedding,  105  ;  duties  and  amuse- 
ments of  married  women,  107  ;  woman's  dress,  111. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Boyhood— Education  and  Training      ....  117-126 

Exposure  of  children,  117  ;  early  childhood,  118  ;  schools  and 
education,  120  ;  military  training,  124. 


CONTENTS 


ix 


CHAPTER  X 

PAGES 

Army  and  Navy    ....  ...  127-133 

Liability  to  military  service,  127  ;  infantry  armour,  127  ;  light- 
armed  infantry  and  cavalry,  129  ;  war- ships,  130. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Religion     ........  134-145 

Confusion  of  Greek  mythology,  134  ;  beliefs  of  the  average 
Athenian,  136  ;  moral  conduct  uninfluenced  by  religion, 
138  ;  State  religion  and  priests,  139  ;  sacrifices,  141  ;  super- 
stitions, 143  ;  religions  toleration,  144. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Festivals  and  the  Theatre      .....  146-161 

Festivals,  146  ;  Panathenaea,  147  ;  feast  of  Dionysus,  148  ;  the 
theatres,  149  ;  choosing  and  staging  of  plays,  152  ;  audiences, 
154  ;  reception  of  plays  and  actors,  154  ;  scenery,  156  ; 
actors'  dress  and  masks,  156  ;  chorus,  158  ;  comedies,  159  ; 
prizes,  160. 

CHAPTER  XIII 

Council  and  Assembly     .         .  ....  162-168 

Principle  of  equality  among  citizens,  162  ;  public  offices,  162  ; 
Council,  164  ;  Assembly,  165  ;  parties  and  speakers,  166. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

An  Athenian  Trial        ......  169-174 

Frequency  and  classes  of  trials,  169  ;  juries,  170  ;  procedure,  171. 


X 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAPTER  XV 

PAGES 

Burial        .  .  ...  175-180 

Laying  out  of  the  corpse,  175  ;  funeral  procession,  17b*  ;  burial 
and  cremation,  177  ;  tombs,  177  ;  offerings  to  tlie  dead,  179. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Athenian  Art       .......  181-204 

Pie-eminence  of  Attic  sculpture,  181  ;  Greek  architecture,  181  ; 
punting,  182  ;  music,  183  ;  qualities  of  Greek  sculpture, 
183  ;  simplicity  in  architecture  and  literature,  189  ;  reasons 
for  Greek  pre-eminence  in  art,  192  ;  abundance  of  works  of 
art,  197  ;  influence  of  art  on  life,  199  ;  painting  of  statuary, 
203. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

MODERNNESS  OF  THE  ATHENIAN      .....  205-208 

Resemblances  between  Athenian  and  modern  life,  205  ;  mental 
and  moral  virtues,  206  ;  comparison  with  other  races,  207. 

Index         ........  209-212 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FIG.  PAGE 

Map  of  Ancient  Athens  (adapted  from  plan  in  E.  A.  Gardner's 

Ancient  Athens)  ......  Frontispiece 

1.  Comparative  map.    Attica  and  Yorkshire  ....  6 

2.  Plan  of  Athens  and  Peiraeus  (Hill,  Illustrations  of  School  Classics, 

p.  406)     ........  12 

3.  View  of  the  Acropolis  from  S.E.  (Hill,  p.  407)       .'         .  .15 

4.  View  of  the  bema  of  the  Pnyx  (E.  A.  Gardner,  p.  105)      .  .  16 

5.  Restored  Acropolis  (Schreiber  and  Anderson,  Atlas  of  Antiquities, 

pi.  13,  3  ;  Thiersch)        ......  19 

6.  Detailed  plan  of  summit  (Hill,  p.  408)       .  .  .  .20 

7.  Parthenon  (present  state)  (E.  A.  Gardner,  p.  25)    .  .  .22 

8.  Temple  :  simple  form  {Olympia,  i.  pi.  36)  .  .  .  .24 

9.  Temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia :  facade  and  interior  {Olympia,  i. 

pi.  11)    . .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  25 

10.  Section  of  Parthenon  showing  frieze  and  metopes  (E.  A.  Gardner, 

p.  280)     .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .26 

11.  Erechtheum  restored  (Guhl  and  Koner,  p.  47  ;  Inwood)    .  .  27 

12.  So-called  Theseum  (Hill,  p.  411)     .....  28 

13.  View  of  public  fountain,  Callirrhoe,  from  a  vase  (Gerhard,  A  user - 

lesene  Vasenbilder,  pi.  307)         .  .  .  .  .31 

14.  House  at  Delos  (Bull.  Corr.  Hell,  1884,  pi.  21)     .  .  57 

15.  Vestibule  ;  conjectural  view  {Ionian  Antiquities,  iii.  1)  .  58 

16.  Decorating  a  Hermes  (Hill,  p.  269)  ....  59 

17.  Door  (in  interior)  (Stackelberg,  Grdber  der  Hellenen,  pi.  34)  .  60 

18.  Upper  lattice  (Millingen,  Peintures  Antiques,  pi.  30)  .          .  62 

19.  Brazier  (Smith,  Dicty.  of  Antiq.  i.  p.  868)  ....  63 

20.  Chairs  (Guhl  and  Koner,  p.  134)     .  .          .          .  .64 

xi 


xii 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


FIG.  PAGE 

21.  Lamp  and  lamp-stand  (Museo  Borbonico,  iv.  pi.  57)          .  .  65 

22.  Domestic  furniture  (Hill,  p.  295)    .....  66 

23.  Portrait  statue  :  Sophocles  (Hill,  p.  252)    .          .          .  .68 

24.  Demosthenes  (Hill,  p.  259)  ......  70 

25.  Tunic  :  statue  at  Delphi  (Fouilles  de  Delphes,  pi.  65)        .  .  71 

26.  Workman's  tunic :  Hephaestus  (Hill,  p.  38)         .   •  .72 

27.  Bordered  garment :  Demeter  (  Wiener  Vorlegebldtter,  A.  pi.  7)  .  73 

28.  Ephebus  in  chlamys  (Millin,  Peintures  de  Vases,  ii.  74)     .  .  74 

29.  Hats  and  caps  (Guhl  and  Koner,  p.  171)    .          .          .  .  75 

30.  Saudal  of  Hermes    .......  76 

31.  Boots  and  shoes  (Guhl  and  Koner,  p.  224)  .          .          .  .77 

32.  Men  with  sticks  (Hartwig,  Meisterschalen,  pi.  40)  .          .  .  78 

33.  Portraits  :  Herodotus  and  Thucydides  (Hill,  pp.  254,  255)  .  83 

34.  Razor  {Brit.  Mils.  Cat,  Bronzes,  p.  319,  375)         .  .84 

35.  Man  reading  :  tombstone  (Attische  Grabreliefs,  pi.  121)     .  .  86 

36.  Youths  bathing  (Gerhard,  Auserl.  Vaserib.  pi.  277)          .  .  89 

37.  Family  meal  (Journ.  Hell.  Shed.  v.  p.  112)           .          .  .91 

38.  Men  reclining  at  banquet  (  Wiener  Vorlcgebl.  vi.  pi.  10)    .  .  93 

39.  Vessels  for  feasts  (P.  Gardner,  Grammar  of  Greek  Art,  p.  160)  .  96 

40.  Drinking-cup  (P.  Gardner,  Grammar,  p.  161)       .  97 

41.  Swing  (Harrison  and  MacColl,  Greek  Vase- Paintings,  pi.  32)  .  103 

42.  Marriage  procession  (Wiener  Vorlegebl.  1888,  pi.  8)          .  .  106 

43.  Girl  with  distaff  (Hill,  p.  346)        .....  107 

44.  Penelope  at  her  loom  (Hill,  p.  347)            .           .          .  .108 

45.  Women  at  home  (Hill,  p.  292)        .           .           .           .  .110 

46.  Putting  on  the  tunic  (Heydemann,  Grieeli,  Vasenbilder,  p.  1)  .  Ill 

47.  Women's  tunics  (P.  Gardner,  Grammar,  p.  51)                .  .  112 

48.  Doric  girl's  dress  (Hill,  p.  298)       .          .           .          .  .113 

49.  Women's  hair  (ideal)  ;  from  coins   .          .          .          .  .114 

50.  Woman  with  fan  (Millin,  Peintures  de  Vases,  i.  29)          .  .  115 

51.  Greek  mirror  (Hill,  p.  300)  .          .          .          .  .116 

52.  Cradle  (Guhl  and  Koner,  p.  196)     .          .          .          .  .118 

53.  54.  School  scene  ;  vase  by  Duris  (  Wiener  Vorlegebl.  vi.  pi.  6)  .  123 

55.  Discobolus  of  Myron  (Hill,  p.  318)  .  ....  125 

56.  Greek  soldier  and  Persian  (Hartwig,  Meisterschalen,  56,  1)  .  128 

57.  Helmets  ;  from  coins          .          .          .          .          .  .129 

58.  Putting  on  corselet  ;  warriors  arming  (Hill,  p.  361) .         .  .  129 


59,  Armourer  :  Thetis  receiving  the  weapons  of  Achilles  (Hill,  p.  104)  130 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


xiii 


FIG.  PAGE 

60.  Armed  soldier :  the  parting  cup  (Hill,  p.  361)       .  .          .  131 

61.  Trireme  ;  from  a  relief  (Hill,  p.  395)  ...           .  .131 

62.  Rowers  (conjectural)  (Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities^ 

p.  36)  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  132 

63.  Sacrifice  of  pig  (Hartwig,  Meistersehalen,  iii.  2)  .          .  142 

64.  Theatre  at  Athens  (present)  (E.  A.  Gardner,  p.  434)  .  .150 

65.  Typical  plan  of  theatre  (Epidaurus)  (Hill,  p.  342)  .  .  .151 

66.  Seats  sloping  to  orchestra  (Haigh,  Attic  Theatre,  p.  123)    .  .152 

67.  Seat  of  priest  of  Dionysus  (Haigh,  p.  378)  ....  153 

68.  Tragic  actor  ;  ivory  (Haigh,  p.  273)  .           .           .  .156 

69.  70.  Tragic  masks  ;  from  a  painting  (Archdol.  Zeitung,  1S79,  pi. 

3,  4)  .  .  .  .  .  .         157,  158 

71.  Comic  masks  ;  from  a  painting  (Archdol.  Zeitung,  1879,  pi.  3,  4)  .  159 

72.  Lysicrates'  monument  (E.  A.  Gardner,  p.  401)      .  .  .161 

73.  Athenian  weight  ;  public  standard  (Bibliotheque  Nat.  Catalogue  des 

Bronzes,  674)       .  .  .  .  .  .163 

74.  Athenian  coin  .          .          .          .          .          .  .164 

75.  Relief  on  a  tomb  ;  parting  scene  (Hill,  p.  293)       .  .          .  178 

76.  Ceremony  at  tomb  (P.  Gardner,  Sculptured  Tombs,  p.  22)  .  .179 

77.  Laying  out  the  dead  (Pottier,  Lecythes  Manes,  pi.  1)  .          .  180 

78.  Hermes  of  Praxiteles  .          .          .          .          .  .187 

79.  Laocoon  (Hill,  p.  112)  ......  188 

80.  Doric  style  (Mauch).  ......  190 

81.  Ionic  style  (Fergusson)  ......  191 

82.  Corinthian  style  (Mauch)     .  .           .           .           .  .192 

83.  Scene  of  vase-painters  (Annali  dell'  Inst.  1876,  pi.  I))       .  .  193 

84.  Bust  of  Pericles  (Hill,  p.  207)  .          .           .          .  .200 

85.  Bust  of  Plato  .......  201 


CHAPTER  I 


INTRODUCTORY 

Our  subject  is  Athenian  life,  and  our  treatment  is  limited  to 
Athens.  It  is  a  serious  historical  error  to  assume,  as  is  com- 
monly done,  that  what  is  said  of  Athenian  manners  and 
customs,  whether  public  or  private,  is  to  be  said  of  the  Greeks 
in  general.  "Greece"  in  the  ancient  sense,  or  "  Hellas,"  is  not 
the  small  and  united  Greece  of  the  modern  map.  Athens  was 
in  no  sense  the  capital  of  an  ancient  Greece.  It  happens  to  be 
the  most  attractive  city,  and  the  city  of  which  we  know  most ; 
it  was  the  city  in  which  art,  intellect,  and  social  culture 
flourished  best,  and  therefore  it  has  left  us  the  completest 
records  of  itself.  It  was  also  the  most  populous  city,  and  one 
of  the  most  powerful ;  but  it  was  the  capital  only  of  the  little 
state  of  Attica,  and — except  in  point  of  language — numberless 
other  states  of  Greece  were  politically  and  socially  as  remote 
from  Athens  as  Germany  is  from  France. 

To  the  ancient  Greeks  Greece,  or  "Hellas,"  meant  every 
place  occupied  by  Greeks,  in  which  the  Greek  tongue  was 
spoken  and  a  certain  sense  of  common  origin  and  religion 
maintained.  Indeed  beyond  the  possession  of  a  common 
tongue — although  this  had  its  dialects,  often  as  distinct  from 
one  another  as  the  Scotch  of  Burns  from  standard  English — a 
general  similarity  of  dress  and  religion,  and  a  common  share  in 
the  great  public  games  of  Olympia  or  Delphi  or  elsewhere,  it 
would  be  hard  to  say  anything  which  would  be  equally  applic- 
able to  all  those  whom  we  call  the  ancient  Greeks.  To 
generalise  would  be  an  even  greater  fallacy  than  for  some  one 
two  thousand  years  hence  to  speak  of  the  present  "Anglo- 
Saxon  peoples  "  as  if  they  were  entirely  homogeneous. 
3E  1  b 


2 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


The  components  of  the  ancient  Greek  world  included  Greece 
proper,  the  islands  of  the  Aegean,  Crete,  the  coasts  of  modern 
Turkey,  the  nearer  shores  of  Asia  Minor,  the  southern  and 
south-western  fringe  of  Italy,  most  of  Sicily,  Cyprus,  Cyrene 
in  Africa,  and  various  outposts,  both  to  the  west  as  far  as 
Marseilles  and  also  round  the  Black  Sea. 

This  Greece  was  not  one  country  in  a  political  sense.  It 
was  a  multitude  of  independent  states,  often  exceedingly  small, 
but  always  exceedingly  jealous  of  their  individuality.  Their 
bond  was  one  of  common  language,  religion,  and  racial  sen- 
timent. Of  them  all  Attica,  with  its  capital  Athens,  is  the  most 
interesting,  and,  to  the  intellectual  history  of  mankind,  most 
important.  The  other  Greeks  differed  more  or  less  widely 
from  the  Athenians,  not  only  in  their  public  organisation,  but 
also  in  the  principles  and  habits  of  their  social  life. 

It  must  never  be  forgotten,  for  instance,  that  Sparta,  with 
its  Lacedaemonians,  was  oligarchical,  stern  and  dour,  unliterary, 
harsh  to  strangers ;  while  Athens  was  intensely  democratic, 
intensely  social,  intensely  literary,  and,  for  the  times,  liberal 
in  its  intercourse  with  the  outer  world.  Thebes  and  the 
Boeotians  were  comparatively  dull ;  Thessaly  was  comparatively 
aristocratic,  luxurious,  and  stagnant ;  while  Athens  was  frugal 
in  habits,  intellectually  alert,  and  always  ready  for  some  new 
thing. 

Perhaps  Athens,  at  the  period  of  which  we  are  to  speak, 
stood  to  the  rest  of  Greece  somewhat  as  Paris  stood  to  western 
Europe  from  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.  It  was  widely  admired, 
envied,  imitated,  and  hated.  In  a  large  degree  it  set  the  taste 
in  matters  of  art  and  literature,  and  to  a  less  degree  in 
manners ;  but  one  could  not  have  judged  all  contemporary 
Europe  by  Paris,  and  one  may  not  judge  all  contemporary 
Greece  by  Athens.  We  must  beware  therefore  of  turning  into 
generalities  applicable  to  "  the  Greeks  "  the  observations  which 
may  be  made  concerning  the  Athenians.  Often,  no  doubt,  we 
should  be  right,  but  no  less  often  we  should  be  led  into  grievous 
error. 

Such  differences  between  Greek  and  Greek  are  not  due 
merely  to  their  respective  geographical  positions  and  to  their 
separate  developments  as  independent  states.  Those  considera- 
tions must,  of  course,  count  for  something;  but  the  prime 


I 


INTRODUCTORY 


3 


reason  is  anterior  to  these  and  deeper.  Take  the  British  Isles. 
An  average  Irishman  differs  from  an  average  Englishman  not 
merely  because  he  lives  in  Ireland,  but  because  of  differences 
in  his  racial  ancestry.  It  was  so  in  ancient  Greece.  The 
Ionian  Greek,  including  the  Athenian,  differed  in  his  mental 
constitution  from  the  Dorian  Greek,  including  the  Spartan, 
because  his  racial  ancestry  was  more  mixed.  Both  spoke 
Greek,  both  had  a  considerable  strain  of  common  descent,  but 
there  was  between  them  a  racial  distinction  at  least  as  great  as 
between  the  average  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  average  semi-Celtic 
inhabitant  of  Ireland. 

It  seems  specially  important  to  make  this  point  clear,  and 
therefore,  in  a  very  few  words,  we  may  summarise  the  situation, 
as  far  as  the  most  recent  research  has  been  able  to  discover  it. 

Before  the  dawn  of  Greek  history,  the  tall,  fair-haired  race 
which  is  so  widely  predominant  in  Great  Britain,  in  Germany, 
Scandinavia,  and  Western  Russia  made  migrations  and  settle- 
ments in  all  directions  outward  from  central  Europe.  It 
passed  into  Italy  and  made  early  Rome  ;  it  passed  into  Northern 
France  and  the  British  Isles.  But  it  also  passed  down  through 
the  Balkan  peninsula  into  Greece.  What  became  of  it  in  these 
various  regions  depended  on  what  it  met  with.  It  of  course 
met  with  some  other  peoples  already  established,  and  its  own 
subsequent  history  would  depend  on  the  numbers  and  characters 
of  those  peoples,  and  on  the  degree  in  which  it  absorbed  them 
or  they  absorbed  it.  The  result  in  all  these  cases  was  a 
mixture,  in  which  one  element  or  the  other  preponderated, 
sometimes  but  slightly,  sometimes  overwhelmingly. 

In  the  regions  afterwards  known  as  Greece  the  northern 
immigrants  and  invaders  found  already  existing  a  civilisation  of 
higher  artistic  and  social  culture  than  their  own.  There  was 
already,  and  there  had  long  been,  in  possession  a  people  of 
another  stock,  shorter,  darker,  less  physically  powerful  — 
conveniently  called  "  Pelasgians."  With  these  the  first  wave 
of  immigrants  intermingled,  more  completely,  perhaps,  than  the 
Anglo-Saxon  tribes  did  with  the  Celt  in  the  British  Islands. 
They  imposed  their  language — the  Greek — and  in  some 
measure  their  religion,  upon  them,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
themselves  picked  up  much  of  the  racial  characteristics  of  the 
Pelasgians,  much  of  their  talents,  their  defects,  and  no  few  of 


4 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


their  beliefs.  This  is  the  first  Greek  stratum,  and  a  very 
mixed  stratum. 

At  least  one  other  great  wave  of  kindred  immigrants  rolled 
in  afterwards,  just  as  the  Germanic  Dane  followed  the  Germanic 
Anglo-Saxon  into  Great  Britain.  These  new  immigrants 
naturally  underwent  less  of  the  original  admixture ;  they  kept 
their  race,  their  habits,  and  their  limitations  more  as  they  had 
been.  And  so  we  have  the  chief  reason,  though  not  the  only 
reason,  why  Greeks  of  one  locality  differed  from  the  Greeks 
of  another. 

There  can  be  little  doubt,  for  example,  that  the  Ionian 
Greek — including  the  Athenian — represents  the  more  mixed 
result  of  the  earlier  invasion;  while  the  Dorian  Greek  — 
typified  in  the  Spartan — represents  the  later  and  more  homo- 
geneous body.  It  can,  perhaps,  be  said  generally  of  the 
northern  immigrants  that  they  may  have  been  superior  in 
physique,  and  in  solidity  of  character  ;  but  theirs  is  not  a  race 
famous  for  nimble  thinking  or  for  fine  social  and  artistic 
instincts.  Those  belonged  rather  to  the  other,  the  earlier  and 
more  southern  "Pelasgian"  stock;  and  since  it  was  in  Attica, 
among  the  Athenians,  that  this  more  native  race  formed  the 
greatest  ingredient,  it  stands  explained,  at  least  in  part,  why 
the  Athenians  were  more  specially  gifted  in  these  artistic  and 
social  directions. 

Let  us  therefore  repeat  our  immediate  text  and  beware  of 
fallacies  of  generalisation  concerning  the  whole  body  of  "  the 
ancient  Greeks." 

Even  in  treating  of  Athens,  our  concern  will  be  with  its 
most  characteristic  or  classical  period.  Nearly  a  thousand 
years  of  Athenian  life  are  more  or  less  known  to  us,  with  all 
its  changes  of  character  and  circumstance ;  and  though  events 
moved  more  slowly  in  the  ancient  world  than  with  us,  and 
though  fashions  of  all  kinds  remained  wonderfully  conservative, 
yet  the  Athens  visited  in  the  days  of  the  Eoman  Empire  by 
St.  Paul  was  a  very  different  Athens  from  that  of  the  days  of 
Pericles,  of  Plato,  or  of  Demosthenes,  four  or  five  centuries 
before.  The  Acropolis  and  its  glories  were  still  there ;  the 
religion  was  still  theoretically  the  same ;  the  many  new  and 
sumptuous  buildings  had  not  greatly  changed  the  exterior 
character  of  the  city ;  but  the  Athenian,  as  a  man,  had  deplor- 


I 


INTRODUCTORY 


5 


ably  degenerated ;  his  social  system  was  considerably  altered, 
and  mostly  for  the  worse. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  of  the  classical  scholar  is  to 
separate  the  Macedonian  Athenian  and  Athens,  and  then  the 
Roman  Athenian  and  Athens,  from  the  true  and  genuine  classical 
Athenian  of  the  free  and  uncontaminated  days. 

In  arriving  at  the  descriptions  which  are  to  be  given,  there 
is  a  great  deal  to  eliminate  and  think  away.  The  maps  and 
plans  of  Athens  generally  ignore  chronology,  and  the  books  of 
antiquities  seldom  distinguish  periods  with  clearness.  There  is 
a  tendency,  therefore,  to  jumble  together  all  that  ever  was  at 
any  date  in  Athens  as  if  it  was  there  all  the  time,  whether  in 
the  way  of  edifices,  of  occupations,  of  social  customs,  or  of 
character.  That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  a  little  treatise  like 
the  present  seems  called  for.  Its  aim  is  to  present  Athens, 
with  Athenian  life,  as  it  was  in  the  period  of  its  greatest  glory, 
its  most  vigorous  vitality,  and  its  least  adulterated  character. 
That  period  extends,  roughly  speaking,  from  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century  B.C.  to  the  conquest  by  the  Macedonians,  or,  to  use 
round  numbers  for  dates,  the  century  from  440  B.C.  to  330  B.C. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  period  the  fortifications  were  already 
completed  ;  the  splendid  Parthenon  and  Propylaea  and  other 
structures  of  the  Acropolis  were  built ;  the  work  of  the  world's 
greatest  sculptor,  Pheidias,  had  glorified  the  city ;  Sophocles 
and  Euripides  were  producing  their  tragic  masterpieces  and 
Aristophanes  his  inimitable  comedies ;  Socrates  was  a  familiar 
figure  disputing  in  public  places  or  in  private  houses  ;  Thucydides 
was  writing  his  perfect  history.  As  the  epoch  advances,  Plato 
is  teaching  in  the  grove  of  Academe  and  composing,  in  his 
incomparable  style,  dialogues  of  transcendental,  if  ironical, 
philosophy ;  Xenophon  appears  upon  the  scene,  and  the 
famous  orators  follow  each  other  in  quick  succession.  Towards 
the  close  of  our  period  oratory  finds  its  consummation  in 
Demosthenes,  and  philosophy  its  most  profound  and  lucid 
exponent  in  Aristotle ;  the  grace  of  plastic  art  is  consummated 
in  Praxiteles  and  Lysippus.  Meanwhile  the  great  stone  theatre 
also  rose  from  the  ground. 

Politically  Athens  stood,  during  the  best  of  this  period,  at 
the  head  of  a  confederation  of  Greek  communities,  and  was  en- 
riched with  their  contributions.  Its  ships  or  galleys  of  war 
amounted  to  hundreds,  and  its  warlike  enterprise,  at  least  in 


6 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


the  early  part  of  our  period,  was  at  its  height.  Yet  Attica 
itself  was  but  of  the  size  of  an  English  county  of  the  second 
rank,  being  only  fifty  miles  in  extreme  length  and  forty  in 
extreme  breadth. 

In  political  and  social  organisation  Athens,  during  this 
century,  reached  its  completest  form  of  democracy  ;  it  went  as 
far  as  it  ever  went  in  the  direction  of  socialism.  Before  our 
period  it  had  submitted  in  no  small  measure  to  the  direction  of 


Emery  Wdlker  sc 


Fig.  1.— Comparative  map.    Attica  and  Yorkshire. 

strong  and  generally  aristocratic  individuals  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
after  our  period,  it  fell  under  the  Macedonian  heel,  subsequently 
under  the  Roman,  and  much  of  its  freedom  became  but  a 
shadow. 

Our  period  is  thus  the  epoch  of  its  greatest  and  freest 
literature,  of  its  purest  art,  of  its  most  original  thinking,  of  its 
loftiest  eloquence,  and  of  its  most  energetic  ambition.  We  shall 
therefore  try  to  keep  its  consideration  clear  of  all  later  elements, 
and  to  remain,  as  far  as  possible,  true  to  our  chosen  date. 


I 


INTRODUCTORY 


7 


The  sources  of  our  knowledge  are  numerous,  and  are 
constantly  increasing.  We  are  by  no  means  compelled  to 
gather  mere  hints,  fragmentary  views  and  apergus,  of  Athenian 
life  and  the  Athenian  mind. 

Written  by  Athenians  themselves  we  possess  histories, 
memoirs,  dramas  tragic  and  comic,  character-sketches,  dialogues, 
speeches  in  the  assembly,  speeches  in  the  law-courts,  books  on 
ethics  and  politics.  We  have  countless  notes  on  public  and 
private  life  written  by  ancients — antiquarians,  commentators, 
and  the  like — who  had  access  to  a  copious  literature  now  lost  to 
us.  We  have  the  actual  witness  of  material  remains,  the 
number  of  which  is  being  constantly  increased  by  excavation. 
We  have  large  numbers  of  inscriptions.  In  the  tombs  are 
multitudes  of  vases,  decorated  with  scenes  of  actual  life,  a 
pictorial  comment  on  contemporary  existence. 

We  need  not  pretend  that  all  these  things,  even  in  the 
completest  aggregate,  can  make  us  absolutely  see  the  people 
precisely  as  they  lived  and  moved  and  had  their  being.  There 
is  sure  to  be  some  degree  of  refraction  and  defect  of  perspective 
in  our  mental  picture.  Nevertheless  there  is  very  much  concern- 
ing which  we  can  be  fairly  certain  and  definite,  and,  if  we  confine 
ourselves  thereto,  we  shall  be  using  our  time  to  the  best  advan- 
tage. Knowledge  of  actual  events  and  of  actual  buildings ; 
knowledge  of  manners,  customs,  ideals,  things  liked  and 
disliked;  of  Attic  virtues,  vices,  weaknesses,  humours,  drolleries ; 
knowledge  of  what  the  law  allowed  and  society  allowed — the 
classical  student  who  studies  antiquities  labours  under  no 
reasonable  doubt  concerning  the  most  important  of  these. 


CHAPTER  II 


GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  ATHENS  AND  ITS  ENVIRONMENT 

We  may  now  proceed  to  the  external  surroundings,  the  frame- 
work of  Athenian  existence. 

Ancient  peoples  were  dependent,  to  a  very  much  greater 
extent  than  the  moderns,  upon  their  immediate  natural 
surroundings.  Their  habits,  occupations,  dress,  food,  and 
dwellings  were  far  more  directly  determined  by  the  soil  and 
climate  of  their  country.  Even  the  objects  and  moods  of  their 
religious  worship  were  in  a  large  measure  so  determined. 

In  our  own  day  the  Englishman  may  eat  American  fruit  and 
Australasian  mutton  ;  he  may  manufacture  the  cotton  of  another 
hemisphere.  It  is  easy  to  transport  these  things.  The  ancients, 
though  they  traded  and  imported  to  the  best  of  their  power, 
were  far  more  restricted  in  their  living  by  the  nature  of  their 
own  productions,  and  the  same  was  the  case  with  their 
industries. 

Again,  in  our  own  day  we  have  grown  so  imitative  or  uniform 
in  our  ways  of  life,  that,  in  climates  the  most  diverse,  we  build 
the  same  sort  of  houses,  wear  the  same  sort  of  clothes,  eat  the 
same  sort  of  food,  and  keep  the  same  hours,  even  when  those 
houses,  that  food,  those  clothes,  and  those  hours  are  far  from 
natural  to  our  particular  environment.  Among  the  ancients  it 
was  otherwise.  The  sense  of  national  difference  and  independ- 
ence was  more  keenly  fostered.  The  character  of  a  man's 
dress,  or  of  his  house,  and  the  disposition  of  his  working  day, 
generally  grew  out  of  the  special  conditions  of  the  climate  in 
which  he  found  himself.  Perhaps  that  is  one  reason  why  he 
managed  to  live  so  long,  despite  the  defects  of  his  medical 
science. 

8 


CHAP.  II 


GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  ATHENS 


9 


To  understand  most  Athenian  habits  it  is  therefore  necessary 
to  understand  the  Attic  soil  and  climate.  The  love  of  the 
Athenians  for  an  open-air  life,  public  and  private,  and  no  little 
of  their  mental  and  artistic  constitution,  are  to  be  so  explained. 

There  are  indications  that  in  ancient  times  Greece  in  general 
was  a  more  wooded  country  than  it  is  to-day,  and  that  it 
was  consequently  in  many  places  better  watered  and  more 
productive.  In  a  certain  passage  of  Plato  a  lofty  and  wide- 
spreading  plane-tree  and  a  tall  and  fragrant  agnus  castus  are 
made  to  grow  on  the  banks  of  the  Ilissus  at  the  place  where 
Socrates  and  Phaedrus  sit  down ;  whereas  nowadays  the  whole 
region  is  singularly  bare.  We  must  not,  indeed,  attach  too  much 
importance  to  that  observation.  The  said  trees  were  evidently 
in  a  semi-sanctified  spot,  specially  tended.  Nevertheless,  we 
need  not  doubt  that  the  Attic  climate,  so  far  as  it  has  been 
modified  in  twenty-three  centuries,  has  been  rendered  somewhat 
more  arid,  and  not  the  contrary. 

Already  in  antiquity  the  soil  of  Attica  was  thin  and  shallow. 
Thucydides  notes  the  fact,  and  Plato  grieves  that  the  rocks 
now  show  through  the  surface  like  the  bones  in  an  emaciated 
body.    Says  Milton  : 

Where  on  the  Aegean  shore  a  city  stands 
Built  nobly,  pure  the  air,  and  light  the  soil. 

That  lightness  of  the  soil,  however,  is  no  compliment.  Never- 
theless, by  careful  tillage  and  irrigation  the  country  grew  a 
considerable  supply  of  barley  and  a  certain,  but  insufficient, 
amount  of  wheat ;  it  was  rich  in  vines,  and  still  more  in  figs 
and  olives.  Honey  was  another  famous  product  of  the  Athenian 
neighbourhood.  On  the  hills  there  fed  sheep,  goats,  and  swine 
in  tolerable  numbers.  Oxen  were  bred  mostly  for  purposes  of 
labour,  but  were  not  numerous.  The  seaboard  meanwhile 
yielded  a  large  variety  of  fish. 

At  this  point  it  is  well  to  recollect  that  this  was  before  the 
days  of  certain  essential  elements  in  our  modern  diet,  namely 
tea,  coffee,  and  the  like,  and  before  the  days  of  sugar.  We 
should  recollect  also  that  the  climate  of  Attica,  for  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  year,  is  not  suited  to  the  preservation  of 
butter  without  ice.  It  is  therefore  easy  to  understand  the 
immense  importance  of  wine,  olives,  and  honey.    To  the  Greeks, 


10 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


diluted  wine  served  the  purpose  which  beer  served  to  our 
Elizabethan  ancestors ;  it  was  their  tea  and  coffee.  Honey 
was  their  sugar ;  olive  oil  was  their  butter ;  it  also  filled  their 
lamps  and  served  for  candles. 

If  now  it  is  discovered  in  the  sequel  that  the  classical 
Athenian  was  a  man  of  moderate  diet,  largely  vegetarian,  and 
that  he  combined  high  thinking  with  plain  living,  there  will  be 
to  hand  at  least  one  weighty  reason  for  the  phenomenon. .  It 
was  not  primarily  the  outcome  of  his  peculiar  character  ;  it 
was  originally  the  outcome  of  his  circumstances,  and  it  was 
found  to  agree  with  his  climate.  As  the  stock  Arab  food  is 
dates  and  water,  so  the  stock  Athenian  food  was  barley-meal 
or  porridge,  bread,  olive-oil,  figs  and  other  fruit,  thin  wine,  fish, 
goat's  milk,  and  cheese,  while  meat  was  a  comparatively  rare 
dish.  The  reason  is  also  apparent  for  dedicating  the  olive  to 
the  patron  goddess  Athena. 

Next  let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  climate  and  its 
effects.  Ancient  and  modern  observers  agree  in  their  eulogies 
of  the  softness  and  clearness  of  the  Athenian  atmosphere. 
According  to  Euripides  the  Athenians  "  walk  ever  luxuriously 
through  most  translucent  air."  In  other  words,  their  atmo- 
sphere is  the  most  clear  and  brilliant  in  all  Greece,  perhaps  not 
surpassed  in  the  world.  The  winter  is  brief  and  of  little 
severity,  despite  occasional  cold  wind  from  the  north ;  wet 
days  are  few  \  the  heat  of  summer  is  considerably  tempered  by 
sea-breezes.  Perhaps,  however,  few  realise  how  far  to  the 
south  the  city  really  lies.  Its  climate,  with  an  average  of  64°, 
is  that  of  a  country  distinctly  warm. 

If,  therefore,  in  the  sequel  it  is  discovered  that  the  Athenian 
in  the  streets  wore  no  covering  on  his  head  and  very  often  none 
upon  his  feet ;  that  his  clothing  was  generally  very  simple  and 
light ;  that  he  preferred  to  pass  the  greater  part  of  his  existence 
out  of  doors ;  that  his  theatre  and  "  parliament "  were  without 
a  roof ;  that  his  private  house  rather  cultivated  shade  than 
light,  and  generally  contained  no  fixed  fireplace  except  in  the 
kitchen ;  if  these  things  are  observed  and  reflected  upon,  it  will 
be  easy  to  realise  that  he  was — in  his  usual  sensible  fashion — 
adapting  himself  healthily  to  his  environment. 

Moreover,  this  splendid  atmosphere  has  no  little  to  do  with 
the  marvellously  clear  Athenian  appreciation  of  form  and  colour, 
and  with  the  nature  of  that  architecture  and  sculpture  which 


II 


GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  ATHENS 


11 


gleamed  and  radiated  and  blended  their  outlines  and  tints, 
their  lights  and  shades,  on  the  towering  Acropolis  and  in 
every  open  place.  Both  for  showing  off  and  for  preserving 
the  beauties  of  art  al  fresco  the  Athenian  climate  was  practically 
ideal. 

To  conclude  our  remarks  upon  this  head  we  must  add  that 
one  great  product  of  Attica  was  Pentelic,  Hymettian,  and  other 
marble,  and  that  the  solid  base  of  Attica  is  limestone  rock. 
The  Athenian  was  inevitably  accustomed  to  work  in  stone. 
Hence,  when  the  artistic  genius  of  the  Athenian  gave  itself  to 
buildings  and  carvings,  the  most  admirable  and  enduring 
material  was  there  in  plenty.  The  Assyrian  must  build  in 
brick,  but  the  readiest  substance  for  the  Greek  was  his  marble, 
and  that  of  pre-eminent  beauty. 

From  the  bare  facts  that  the  Athenian  lived  in  a  land  which 
supplied  a  frugal  and  simple,  but  sufficient  and  wholesome, 
diet,  in  a  climate  which  makes  for  sociable  outdoor  life  without 
producing  languor,  in  an  atmosphere  which  sets  off  whatsoever 
things  are  shapely  and  beautiful,  on  a  soil  furnished  with  a 
plentiful  supply  of  excellent  material  for  plastic  art — from 
these  simple  facts  should  we  start  before  we  attempt  to  under- 
stand those  ways  which  characterise  what  is  loosely  called  his 
"  civilisation." 

After  these  remarks  upon  Attica  and  its  capital  city,  let  us 
proceed  to  the  situation  of  that  city  itself.  It  is  most  logical, 
before  we  attempt  a  panoramic  view  of  the  day's  life  of  a 
breathing  Athenian,  to  get  some  notion,  however  imperfect  in 
details,  of  his  outward  surroundings,  the  scenes  amid  which  he 
moved. 

What  may  be  called  "  Greater  Athens  "  consisted,  as  the 
following  plan  will  show,  of  the  city  of  Athens  proper,  situated 
between  four  and  five  miles  from  the  sea,  and  a  port  or  harbour- 
town,  the  Peiraeus,  with  which  the  city  was  connected  by  means 
of  two  long  walls. 

To  the  outside  world  "  Athens "  stood  for  this  larger 
conception.  On  the  western  side,  at  a  distance  of  about  two 
miles  from  the  city  wall,  ran  the  river  Cephisus,  its  bank  being 
thickly  bordered  with  olive-trees  and  with  grounds  under 
irrigation.  Closer  in,  on  the  east  and  south,  ran  the  Ilissus, 
which  eventually  joins  the  other  stream.     Neither  of  these 


12 


CHAP.  II 


GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  ATHENS 


13 


so-called  rivers  could  boast  of  great  size  or  depth  ;  in  summer- 
time they  are  almost  dry,  and  when  Gray  speaks  of  "  fields  that 
cool  Ilissus  laves,"  he  is  drawing  upon  the  classical  associations 
rather  than  the  actual  circumstances  of  that  stream.  Its 
shallowness  is  betrayed  by  the  passage  in  Plato,  where  Phaedrus 
remarks  to  Socrates,  "  I  am  fortunate  in  not  having  my  sandals, 
and,  as  you  never  have  any,  I  think  we  may  go  along  the 
brook  and  cool  our  feet  in  the  water."  Near  to  the  city  in  the 
surrounding  landscape  are  sundry  conspicuous  single  hills  and 
ranges,  among  which  the  purple-hued  Hymettus,  thyme-clad 
and  bee-haunted,  lying  to  the  east,  is  perhaps  the  one  whose 
name  is  most  familiar. 

Athens,  in  the  proper  or  narrower  sense,  enclosed  within  its 
walls  a  space  of  about  a  mile  in  breadth  and  a  third  more  in 
length.  About  a  dozen  gates  led  in  convenient  directions,  and 
occasional  towers  rose  along  the  circuit.  From  the  south-west 
angle  two  parallel  walls,  nearly  200  yards  apart,  ran  to  the 
Peiraeus,  so  that  in  war-time  communication  with  the  port 
might  be  uninterrupted.  These  "Long  Walls,"  or  "Legs," 
as  they  were  called,  were  some  12  feet  in  thickness  and  30 
feet  in  height.  For  pedestrians  in  peace-time  the  more  agree- 
able walk  was  outside  the  more  northern  wall.  The  Peiraeus, 
which  was  also  fortified  by  a  wall  14  feet  thick  and  30  feet 
high,  embraced  three  chief  harbours,  provided  with  quays  and 
ship-houses  and  protected  by  moles.  The  most  roomy  of  the 
three,  which  was  especially  called  Peiraeus,  still  admits  even 
the  largest  modern  warship. 

Altogether  the  fortified  circuit  of  greater  Athens  amounted 
to  about  20  miles,  and  contained,  so  far  as  can  be  discovered,  a 
population  of  perhaps  130,000  in  the  city  proper  and  40,000 
in  the  port.  Xenophon's  observation  that  the  city  contained 
"ten  thousand"  houses  must  obviously  be  taken  as  only  an 
easy-going  approximation.  Meanwhile,  in  the  whole  territory 
of  Attica — including  not  only  Athens  but  also  the  country 
towns,  villages,  and  homesteads — the  total  number  of  inhabit- 
ants of  all  classes  appears  to  have  been  about  400,000.  It  is 
sufficiently  startling  when  we  fully  realise  that  the  superlative 
wealth  of  literature,  art,  philosophy,  and  social  experiment 
associated  with  the  name  of  Athens  sprang  from  a  community 
so  diminutive  in  area  and  numbers. 

In  the  middle  of  the  city  rose  the  Acropolis,  a  table  or 


14 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  II 


plateau  of  rock,  of  nearly  200  feet  in  height,  1000  in  length, 
and  half  as  much  in  breadth. 

This  had  been  the  original  settlement,  secured  by  its  position 
against  pirates  and  other  raiders  ;  and  even  in  the  classical  time 
it  was  still  called  the  "  City  "  in  a  narrower  sense,  corresponding 
somewhat  to  that  in  which  an  older  portion  of  London  is  so 
styled.  In  our  period  it  was  no  longer  occupied  by  houses,  but 
was  covered  with  temples,  altars,  and  statues,  the  whole  being 
surrounded  by  a  strong  wall  of  fortification,  built  outside  the 
upper  portion  of  the  rock.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the 
Acropolis  combined  the  purposes  of  a  fortress,  a  sacred  reserve, 
a  treasury,  and  a  museum  of  art.  The  Acropolis  was  "  a 
dedication  "  ;  according  to  Demosthenes  it  was  "  all  sacred  " ; 
and  assuredly  no  such  glory  of  art  was  ever  contained  in  as 
little  space  anywhere  in  the  world.  As  a  stronghold  it  was 
made  inaccessible  except  upon  the  western  side,  where  a 
magnificent  flight  of  steps  led  to  the  superb  entrance-gate. 

Below  this  hill  on  all  sides,  but  particularly  to  west  and 
north,  lay  the  "  Town,"  or  "  Lower  City,"  of  which  the  chief 
features  are  shown  in  the  plan,  Fig.  2. 

Of  the  greatest  importance  to  any  Greek  city  is  the 
" Agora,"  the  " gathering"  or  market-place,  which  corresponds 
somewhat  to  the  old  " Grande  Place"  of  a  Continental  town 
and  fulfils  many  functions.  At  Athens  it  lay  toward  the  north 
of  the  entrance  to  the  Acropolis,  and  was  surrounded  by 
colonnades — including  the  famous  "  Painted  Portico  " — public 
offices,  temples,  and  statues.  Plane-trees  had  been  planted  for 
ornament  and  shade.  A  portion  of  the  space  was  used  for  the 
market,  and  in  this  the  traders  erected  their  movable  booths 
and  stalls.  But  the  Agora  was  also  the  place  for  many 
important  gatherings,  for  parades  and  reviews,  and  for  general 
public  resort. 

Adjoining  the  Agora  on  the  south-west,  and  ascended  there- 
from by  stone  steps,  was  the  hill  named  Areopagus,  the  "  Mars' 
Hill "  on  which,  four  centuries  later,  St.  Paul  stood  and  declared 
that  the  Athenians  were  "  too  superstitious."  His  exclamation 
that  "  God  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands "  was 
naturally  prompted  by  the  view  which  lay  before  and  below 
him.  On  the  Acropolis  rose  the  Parthenon,  the  Erechtheum 
and  other  shrines,  the  temple  of  Victory,  and  the  colossal 
statue  of  Athena  the  Champion  •  on  a  lower  height  stood  such 


15 


16 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


conspicuous  'temples  as  that  miscalled  the  Theseum.  These 
and  other  buildings  already  existed  at  the  date  of  which  we 
are  treating. 

Another  important  elevation  was  the  Pnyx,  the  old  and 
orthodox,  though  by  no  means  the  only,  place  of  assembly. 
Upon  this  a  semicircular  area  of  about  2^  acres  had  been 
cleared  in  the  rock,  and  here  the  citizens  gathered,  to  be 


Fig.  4.— View  of  the  bema  of  the  Pnyx. 


addressed — seated  as  best  they  could  on  stools  of  their  own, 
or  on  the  ground — by  orators  who  mounted  a  stone  platform 
in  the  middle  of  the  diameter  line. 

From  this  hill  there  were  visible  the  sea  and  its  port  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  glories  of  the  Athenian  city  on  the  other, 
and  it  was  a  trick  of  the  orators  to  make  the  prospect  play  a 
moving  part  in  their  patriotic  appeals. 

Outside  the  walls  lay  suburbs,  cemeteries,  and  gardens. 
Of  chief  note  was  the  north-western  suburb  of  the  Cerameicus, 


II 


GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  ATHENS 


17 


where  a  road,  bordered  by  tombs  of  the  illustrious  dead,  led  to 
the  park  or  gardens  by  the  Cephisus  known  as  Academfa.  Here 
were  a  gymnasium,  plantations,  walks,  and  fountains,  and  from 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  favourite  resort  of  Plato  as  a  guide  in 
philosophy,  the  name  has  passed,  with  some  degeneration  of 
meaning,  into  the  English  "  academy."  Other  "  Gardens " 
(expressly  known  by  that  name)  lay  to  the  east,  by  the  Ilissus; 
in  this  direction  also  was  a  gymnasium,  the  Lyceum,  a  no  less 
famous  resort  of  philosophy  and,  in  particular,  of  Aristotle. 

These,  of  course,  are  but  main  features  in  the  topography 
of  Athens.  Under  the  south-east  slope  of  the  Acropolis  there 
was  built,  towards  the  end  of  our  period,  the  vast  stone  theatre; 
on  its  eastern  slope  lay  the  Odeum  or  "  Hall  of  Song,"  built  by 
Pericles ;  and  dotted  about  the  city  were  numerous  temples, 
shrines,  and  porticoes,  which  it  would  here  be  disproportionate 
to  particularise.  Moreover,  statues  of  gods,  heroes,  and 
illustrious  men  were  to  be  found  in  hundreds.  The  port-town 
also  had  its  theatre,  temples,  and  colonnades,  its  dock-buildings, 
and  its  Exchange. 


C 


CHAPTEK  III 


PUBLIC  BUILDINGS,  STREETS,  ETC. 

We  may  now  with  advantage  look  somewhat  more  closely 
at  the  character  of  the  public  structures  which  the  Athenians 
erected  with  such  magnificent  public  spirit  and  such  extra- 
ordinary excellence  of  taste,  and  in  sight  of  which  they  passed 
to  and  fro  every  day. 

Of  the  buildings  and  adornments  of  the  Acropolis  we  need 
not  speak  in  full  detail.  It  will  be  enough  to  select  some 
salient  features. 

After  mounting  the  flight  of  marble  steps,  70  feet  broad, 
which  led  up  to  the  western  corner,  we  find  ourselves  before 
the  special  pride  of  Athens,  the  Propylaea  or  entrance-gate. 
From  the  front  this  presented  a  splendid  facade,  with  much  of 
the  character  of  a  triumphal  arch,  which  its  magnificent  situa- 
tion, as  viewed  from  below,  set  off  to  the  best  advantage.  On 
our  passing  through,  it  turns  out  to  be  also  a  triple  colonnade, 
with  halls  at  the  side,  including  a  picture-gallery. 

The  cost  of  the  Propylaea  was  about  £500,000  in  weight 
of  modern  money.  If  money  is  better  estimated  at  its  purchas- 
ing power,  the  cost  should  perhaps  be  set  down  as  nearly  three 
times  that  amount.  It  was,  however,  not  the  cost,  but  the 
splendid  effect,  which  aroused  so  much  pride  in  the  Athenian 
breast.  Says  Demosthenes :  "  Athens  still  keeps  everlasting 
possessions  :  on  the  one  side,  the  memory  of  her  exploits ;  on 
the  other,  the  beauty  of  the  monuments  dedicated  in  those 
olden  days — yonder  Propylaea,  the  Parthenon,  the  Colonnades, 
the  Ship-houses."  The  Theban  Epaminondas  recognised  the 
completest  way  of  humbling  the  Athenian  spirit :  "  You  must 
uproot  the  Propylaea  and  plant  it  before  your  own  citadel." 

18 


19 


20 


chap,  in  PUBLIC  BUILDINGS,  STREETS,  ETC.  21 

The  Athenians  themselves,  being  a  humorous  people,  laughed 
at  their  own  foible.  Says  one  comedian,  "  They  are  always 
belauding  four  things  :  their  myrtle-berries,  their  honey,  their 
Propylaea,  and  their  figs." 

Passing  through  this  noble  entrance,  the  citizen  issued  upon 
the  platform  of  the  Acropolis. 

In  the  open,  directly  before  him,  towered  the  colossal  bronze 
statue  of  Athena.  This,  which  was  the  work  of  Pheidias, 
reached  with  its  pedestal  a  height  of  70  feet,  and,  as  it  stood 
armed  with  gilded  helmet  and  shield,  the  sheen  of  the  golden 
top  of  the  spear  was  visible  far  away  to  the  returning  Athenian 
as  he  approached  from  Cape  Sunium.  The  statue  was  still 
standing  some  eight  centuries  later,  when  in  A.D.  395  it  is  said 
to  have  scared  away  Alaric  the  Goth.  To  the  Athenian  the 
colossal  statue  represented  the  protecting  power  of  the  patron 
goddess  "  holding  her  hand  above  us." 

Rather  to  the  right  stands  the  Parthenon,  or  temple  of  the 
Virgin  Goddess.  The  large  and  imposing  ruins  of  the  present 
day  represent  most,  but  not  all,  of  what  was  left  when  in  the 
seventeenth  century  the  Venetian  artillery  exploded  a  Turkish 
magazine  stored  in  this  queen  of  ancient  buildings. 

Greek  temples  were  for  the  most  part  built  on  the  same 
general  plan,  which  is  best  explained  by  the  accompanying 
diagrams.  They  varied,  however,  in  size,  in  the  number  of 
sides  upon  which  columns  were  erected,  in  the  number  of 
rows  of  such  columns,  and  in  the  quantity  and  skill  of 
sculptured  decoration.  In  general  a  rectangular  edifice  of 
stone — the  temple  proper — stood  upon  a  platform,  and  might 
have  at  one  end,  at  both  ends,  or  on  all  four  sides,  a  row,  or 
more  than  one  row,  of  pillars.  The  rectangular  building  might 
be  divided  into  two  portions,  the  one  being  the  shrine  contain- 
ing the  statue,  the  other  a  rear-chapel,  used  particularly  for  a 
treasury.  In  the  Parthenon  the  shrine  is  100  feet  in  length, 
and  it  contained  the  colossal  gold  and  ivory  statue  of  Athena 
the  Virgin,  nearly  40  feet  in  height.  It  was  divided  into  three 
naves  and  was  apparently  lighted  by  openings  in  the  roof,  and 
by  the  transparent  and  reflecting  quality  of  the  marble  in  the 
ceiling  and  around.  Behind  was  a  treasury,  and  around  the 
whole  were  columns,  34  feet  high  and  6  feet  in  diameter, 
arranged  as  in  the  diagram. 

The  front  elevation  of  a  typical  Greek  temple  shows  a  gable 


22 


chap,  in  PUBLIC  BUILDINGS,  STREETS,  ETC. 


23 


or  pediment,  of  which  the  flat  space,  or  tympanum,  is  occupied 
by  sculpture,  often  more  than  life-size.  Over  each  angle  of  the 
gable  is  erected  an  ornament,  such  as  a  tripod.  Below  the 
gable  there  are  sculptures  in  relief  along  the  frieze,  and,  in 
cases  where  a  row  of  columns  surrounds  the  temple,  there  may 
be  further  sculptures,  running  round  an  inner  frieze  beneath 
the  ceiling  of  the  colonnade.  So  far  as  they  have  survived, 
the  sculptures  of  the  Parthenon — which  were  partly  superin- 
tended by  Pheidias — are  the  admiration  of  the  world,  many  of 
them,  chiefly  from  the  frieze,  being  familiar  in  the  shape  of 
the  Elgin  Marbles.  It  was  only  at  a  later  time  that  golden 
shields  also  formed  a  part  of  the  decoration  of  the  outer 
entablature. 

The  beauty  of  the  Parthenon  and  similar  buildings  was  the 
beauty  of  great  conception,  and  yet  of  sublime  simplicity  of 
mass  and  majesty.  It  depended  mainly  on  studied  proportion, 
which  gave  the  greatest  value  to  line.  So  carefully  was  true 
effect  studied  by  the  Greek  architect,  that  both  the  platform 
and  the  pillars  will  be  found  to  have  a  curving  outline, 
determined  on  optical  principles,  and  infinitely  more  grateful 
to  the  eye  than  a  combination  of  lines  rigidly  straight.  The 
various  structures  on  the  Acropolis,  as  the  plan  will  show,  were 
not  built  monotonously  in  line  with  each  other.  When  looked 
at  from  below,  perfect  symmetry  would  have  been  less  effective 
for  the  whole,  and  would  have  destroyed  the  individuality  of 
the  parts.  A  certain  tasteful  "  asymmetry  "  obviously  increases 
the  significance  of  each  building,  besides  more  agreeably 
blending  the  masses  of  light  and  shade.  A  peculiar  and  elegant 
exception  to  the  ordinary  type  of  temple  must  be  noted  in  the 
case  of  the  composite  Erechtheum. 

If  we  now  conceive  of  all  this  as  bathed  in  the  brilliance 
of  the  Attic  atmosphere,  whether  morning  glow  or  midday 
splendour  or  mild  evening  tints ;  if  we  imagine  the  shine  of 
white  marble,  painted  sculptures  and  gold ;  if  we  realise  that 
all  the  lines  and  colours  and  proportions  have  been  conceived 
and  executed  with  an  eye  to  this  effect ;  if  we  remember  that 
on  the  Acropolis  alone  was  expended,  besides  the  utmost  genius 
of  man,  the  equivalent  of  perhaps  six  or  seven  million  pounds 
of  our  money ;  and  if  we  then  bethink  ourselves  that  the  men 
who  called  for  it,  wrought  it,  and  paid  for  it,  were  content 
themselves  to  live  in  houses  which  we  should  despise,  we  may 


Fig.  8.— Temple  :  simple  form. 


24 


26 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


deduce  some  conception  of  their  public  spirit,  their  religious 
spirit,  and  their  artistic  spirit. 

We  can  hardly  find  the  space  to  deal  much  further  with  the 
public  buildings  of  classical  Athens.    But  since  colonnades 


Fig.  10. — Section  of  Parthenon  showing  frieze  and  metopes. 


have  been  frequently  mentioned,  we  may  make  one  or  two 
notes  upon  their  nature. 

These  structures  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  Greek  life. 
What  the  Greeks  called  a  stoa  is  not  a  porch,  but  a  covered 
colonnade,  a  glorified  verandah.  Those  who  know  the  famous 
loggia  at  Florence  will  have  some,  though  not  a  strictly  accurate, 


Ill 


PUBLIC  BUILDINGS,  STREETS,  ETC. 


27 


conception  of  its  character.  In  its  simplest  form  it  consisted  of 
a  roof  supported  in  front  by  a  row  of  columns,  and  at  the  back 
by  a  wall.  You  thus  obtain  a  covered  walk  or  lounge,  open  to 
the  air  and  warmth,  but  protected  from  rain  and  wind.  Which- 
ever way  the  sun  shone  or  the  wind  blew  your  Athenian  could 
always  find  a  portico  facing  so  that  he  could  walk  or  sit  in 
comfort.  Sometimes  the  portico  was  double,  that  is  to  say, 
there  was  a  wall  down  the  middle  with  a  colonnade  on  each  side. 
Occasionally,  though  we  are  not  sure  of  an  instance  at  our  date 
in  Athens,  it  had  two  stories.    Sometimes,  instead  of  the  wall, 


Fig.  11. — Erechtheum  restored. 


there  were  interior  rows  of  colonnades,  so  as  to  form  aisles  of 
pillars. 

In  the  more  important  cases  the  whole  would  be  constructed 
magnificently  in  marble,  adorned  in  front  with  statues,  and,  on 
the  edge  of  the  roof,  with  both  statues  and  other  ornaments. 
Shields  or  other  trophies  were  sometimes  suspended  in  or  on 
the  building,  and  the  walls  were  often  painted  with  historical 
or  mythological  scenes.  What  has  been  so  misleadingly  called 
the  Painted  "  Porch  " — the  famous  resort  of  the  Stoics,  whence 
they  derive  their  name — was  such  a  colonnade,  with  great 
battle  paintings  by  Polygnotus  and  others. 

The  porticoes  served  as  lounges,  walks,  places  of  resort  for 


28 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


conversation  and  philosophical  discussion  ;  they  were  sometimes 
used  for  law  courts  al  fresco,  or  as  halls  of  meeting,  and, 
especially  in  the  port  town  of  Peiraeus,  they  were  used  for  corn- 
exchanges  and  the  like.  In  some  such  porticoes,  presumably 
of  less  pretensions,  it  would  appear  that  fires  were  lighted  in 
winter,  so  that  the  poor  or  unoccupied  of  the  city  might  not 
miss  the  accustomed  consolation  of  society  and  conversation. 
One  other  note  upon  buildings  is  perhaps  necessary.    It  has 


Fig.  12.— So-called  Theseum. 


already  been  remarked  that  the  theatre,  the  place  of  Assembly, 
and  the  court  of  the  Areopagus,  were  open  to  the  sky  :  the 
colonnades  had  their  flat  roofs,  like  the  houses.  Were  there  no 
covered  public  buildings  besides  the  temples  ?  In  this  respect 
the  Athenians  suited  every  building  to  its  purpose,  and  we  may 
instance  the  Odeum,  or  Hall  of  Song.  For  the  hearing  of 
musical  competitions  and  recitals,  and  for  the  chanted  recita- 
tions of  the  rhapsodes,  it  was  plainly  necessary  to  possess  a 
covered  hall  or  theatre,  and  the  Odeum  or  Hall  of  Song  was, 
unlike  almost  every  other  building  in  Athens,  covered  with  a 
conical  dome.    Pericles,  who  built  the  one  chiefly  in  use  at  our 


Ill 


PUBLIC  BUILDINGS,  STREETS,  ETC. 


29 


date,  possessed  a  cranium  shaped  like  a  cone,  and  it  was  a  joke 
of  comedy — or  what  we  should  now  call  the  comic  press — to 
speak  of  Pericles'  cranium  as  his  "  Hall  of  Song." 

We  might  be  tempted  to  walk  in  imagination  through  the 
gate  from  the  Academy  and  Cerameicus,  along  between  the 
parallel  lines  of  porticoes,  into  the  Agora  or  great  "  Square," 
across  which  we  should  look,  between  other  colonnades  and 
rows  of  plane-trees,  under  a  triumphal  arch  and  between 
statues  of  gods  and  heroes,  at  the  Senate  House  and  the 
"  Eotunda "  Hall  of  Administration.  But  our  scope  hardly 
permits  of  pleasant  excursions  like  these. 

Apart  from  the  public  buildings,  gardens,  open  places,  and 
the  constant  visions  of  architectural  and  sculptural  splendours, 
the  outward  Athens  boasted  at  our  period,  its  period  of  greatest 
grandeur  and  finest  civilisation,  no  magnificence  of  streets  or 
private  houses.  There  were  no  palaces,  nor  great  mansions. 
Of  the  insignificance  of  the  private  dwellings  we  have  to  speak 
hereafter.  They  were  mostly  flat-roofed,  and  presented  to  the 
street  a  singularly  poor  and  unattractive  exterior.  Their 
wooden  framework,  or  framework  of  unburnt  bricks,  might  be 
plastered  or  stuccoed,  possibly  tinted,  but  without  any  claims 
to  beauty.  A  Greek  writer,  Dicaearchus,  of  the  epoch  we  are 
considering,  says  that  Athens  is  "  dusty  and  not  well  supplied 
with  water,  badly  laid  out  on  account  of  its  antiquity,  the 
majority  of  the  houses  mean,  and  only  a  few  good.  A  stranger, 
at  the  first  view,  might  doubt  if  this  were  Athens  " — but  he 
would  only  doubt  till  he  looked  at  the  theatre  and  the  other 
superb  public  edifices.  There  we  have,  indeed,  the  truth. 
The  town  of  Athens,  like  all  old  towns,  grew  up  fitfully  and 
without  design.  Hence  the  streets  were  mostly  extremely 
narrow  and  crooked  ;  many  were  mere  lanes  ;  no  few  were 
little  better  than  passages.  There  were  one  or  two  more 
roomy,  such  as  that  from  Cerameicus,  but  on  the  whole  they 
closely  resembled  the  streets  and  alleys  in  the  oldest  parts  of 
the  oldest  towns  which  may  still  be  seen  in  Italy. 

In  the  harbour-town  of  Peiraeus,  which  was  comparatively 
new  and  offered  a  clear  field,  the  streets  were  laid  out  by 
direction  of  Themistocles  on  a  systematic  plan  by  a  certain 


30 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Hippodamus,  the  Hausmann  of  the  day.  They  were  broad, 
and  intersected  each  other  at  right  angles.  It  is  to  be 
remembered,  in  passing,  that  the  use  of  carriages  was  almost 
unknown  inside  Athens  itself. 

Nor  were  these  streets  kept  either  tolerably  paved  or  tolerably 
clean.  That  the  worship  of  great  art  and  intellectuality  is 
compatible  with  the  toleration  of  great  discomfort  and  dirt  is 
known  to  any  observer.  It  is  a  pity  ;  for  it  affords  the  Philistine 
an  utterly  illogical  handle  for  abuse  of  art  itself.  So  far  as 
Athens  was  concerned,  we  find  none  of  the  Roman  systematic 
pavement  or  reticulation  of  water-supply  and  drainage.  The 
ancient  geographer  Strabo  remarks  that  "  the  Greeks  attended 
chiefly  to  beauty  and  fortification,  harbours,  and  a  fertile  soil ; 
the  Romans  to  pavement  of  streets  and  water-supply  and  sewers." 
There  was  but  little  paving  in  Athens,  and  there  were  no  side- 
walks. In  Aristophanes  the  short-sighted  old  men  grope  their 
way  along  complaining  of  the  mud  and  clay.  There  was,  of 
course,  no  lighting  of  the  streets  at  night ;  as  in  old  London, 
it  was  necessary  to  carry  torches  or  horn-lanterns,  except  when 
there  was  a  moon.  It  is  also  a  pity  to  have  to  say  that  the 
public  streets  were  anything  but  respected  by  the  householders. 
Slops  and  garbage  of  the  worst  description  were  cheerfully 
thrown  into  the  road,  and  just  as  the  old  Edinburgh  people, 
emptying  their  dirty  water  from  the  windows,  were  wont  to 
call  out  "  Gardy-loo  "  (gardez  Veau),  so  the  Athenians  thought 
themselves  free  of  blame  if  they  cried  out  existo,  "stand  out 
of  the  way,"  on  such  occasions.  There  existed,  it  is  true,  a 
board  of  metropolitan  officers,  but  their  chief  duty  was  to  prevent 
encroachment  and  obstruction  to  the  roads  and  the  traffic,  and 
though  they  apparently  employed  a  number  of  scavengers, 
there  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  the  back  streets  of  Athens 
were  deplorably  unsightly  and  unfragrant. 

That  the  city  possessed  a  large  covered  drain  and  a  number 
of  others  is  certain ;  but  the  whole  question  of  Athenian 
sanitation  is  one  of  great  obscurity.  Let  us  be  content  to  know 
that  it  was  far  from  ideal,  and  that  Athens  once  at  least  suffered 
from  a  plague  of  which  it  is  more  horrible  to  read  in  the  terse 
narrative  of  Thucydides  than  it  is  to  read  of  the  plague  of 
London  in  the  pages  of  Defoe. 

As  Strabo  remarked,  the  water-supply  was  far  from  being 
organised  like  the  Roman.    Nevertheless  the  defect  has  been 


Ill 


PUBLIC  BUILDINGS,  STREETS,  ETC. 


31 


exaggerated.  Besides  natural  springs,  there  have  been  discovered 
underground  conduits  of  unquestionable  antiquity,  and  a  fair 
supply  of  water  was  regularly  drawn  from  the  upper  Ilissus 
and  from  Mount  Hymettus  by  this  means.   Yet  neither  this  water 


 r  d 

Fig.  13. — View  of  public  fountain,  Callirrhoe,  from  a  vase. 

nor  any  other  public  supply  was  carried  to  individual  houses. 
If  the  inhabitants  could  not  provide  for  themselves  by  means  of 
wells  and  tanks  (which  were  very  numerous  in  Athens)  they 
went,  or  sent  their  slaves,  to  fetch  water  in  large  earthenware 
jars  from  the  public  springs  or  fountains.  True  to  their  policy 
of  beautifying  whatever  was  public  property,  the  Athenians 


32 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  Ill 


would  take  a  natural  fountain,  make  a  well-head  of  it,  build 
thereover  an  edifice  of  artistic  form,  and  then  cause  that  head 
of  water  to  flow  through  pipes  and  issue  from  the  wall  through 
lions'  heads,  or  some  other  of  those  ornamental  shapes  which 
we  have  borrowed  from  them  and  for  the  most  part  con- 
ventionalised into  ugliness.  The  chief  such  fountain  in  Athens 
was  the  famous  "Nine-pipes,"  which  thus  covered  and  distributed 
what  had  once  been  the  open  natural  spring  Callirrhoe,  the 
"fair-flowing."  With  a  mixture  of  piety  and  shrewdness,  a 
fountain  was  dedicated  to  some  deity  or  hero,  and  thus  secured 
by  superstition,  if  by  nothing  else,  against  defilement.  Over 
the  water-supply  there  was  a  board  of  overseers,  and,  so  far  as 
the  evidence  goes,  Athens  was  never  seriously  affected  by  any 
difficulty  in  satisfying  its  needs. 

We  must  not  forget  to  explain  concerning  the  streets  that 
there  was  no  consistent  method  of  naming  them.  Sometimes 
a  street  was  familiarly  known  by  some  trade  specially  carried 
on  in  it,  such  as  the  "  Cabinet-makers'  Road  "  or  the  "  Road  of 
the  Sculptors  of  Hermae,"  much  as  old  London  had  its 
Fellmongers'  Lane  and  the  like.  "  Tripod  Street  "  was  so  called 
from  the  series  of  tripods  which  had  been  dedicated  by  various 
victors  in  the  dramatic  contests.  Others  were  known  from 
some  temple  in  them,  e.g.  the  "  Street  of  Hestia  " — as  we  might 
say  "  St.  John's  "  or  "  St.  James's  Street."  A  few  local  divisions 
or  quarters  of  the  town — originally  separate  villages — had  also 
their  names,  "  Collytus "  or  "  Melite,"  much  as  we  speak  of 
Kensington  or  Marylebone  ;  and  it  was  generally  found  sufficient 
address  for  a  particular  house  if  one  said  that  it  was  in  such 
and  such  a  quarter,  near  to  such  and  such  a  temple  or  public 
building  or  statue,  on  the  left-hand  side.  It  remained  for  you 
to  find  the  approximate  locality,  and  then  to  make  inquiries  in 
the  shops  (a  method  still  not  unknown)  or  of  passers-by.  Athens 
was  a  comparatively  small  town,  a  town  where  men  lived 
publicly  and  sociably,  and  there  was  little  practical  difficulty  in 
finding  any  house  required. 


CHAPTER  IV 


CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN 

We  have  now  taken  a  general  survey  of  the  outward  environ- 
ment of  an  Athenian  citizen's  life,  of  his  town  and  the  public 
buildings  and  streets  among  which  he  lived  and  moved  and 
had  his  being.  Assuming  that  we  have  in  our  minds  some 
picture  of  those  surroundings,  let  us  now  cast  our  eyes  in  a 
survey,  equally  general  and  comprehensive,  over  the  inhabitants 
of  Athens  themselves.  That  population  contained  various 
strata,  between  which  there  were  wide  differences  from  both 
a  political  and  social  point  of  view.  Conversation,  even  with 
well-informed  persons,  will  show  that  there  exist  many 
misconceptions  as  to  the  constitution  of  Athenian  society 
in  this  respect.  We  must  therefore  in  this  case,  as  before, 
begin  at  the  beginning,  and  be  entirely  clear  and  simple,  even 
at  the  sacrifice  of  some  of  the  detail  which,  to  the  professional 
scholar,  doubtless  has  its  importance,  but  which  is  here  un- 
essential. 

If,  as  strangers,  we  could  look  down  upon  the  people 
moving  about  in  their  private  capacity  in  the  streets  and 
squares  of  the  city,  or  at  work  in  the  shops,  the  market,  and 
the  houses,  we  should  have  little  outward  indication  that  out 
of  every  eight  or  nine  persons  there  would  be  on  the  average 
two  persons  of  one  particular  class,  five  or  six  of  another  class, 
and  one  of  yet  a  third  class.  Two  persons,  let  us  say,  are 
Athenian  citizens  or  burgesses — "  Athenians "  in  the  strict 
and  proper  sense — counted  among  the  franchised  owners  and 
administrators  of  the  whole  state.  Five  or  six  persons  are 
slaves ;  not  men  of  colour,  nor  otherwise  physically  remote 
from  the  Athenian,  but  yet  servants,  and  servants  only,  men 

33  D 


34 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


without  freedom  of  action  to  go  or  come,  men  without  any 
voice  whatever  in  the  affairs  of  the  country.  The  one 
remaining  person  of  the  eight  or  nine  is  entirely  free  to  go 
and  come ;  he  is  his  own  master ;  he  may  be,  and  often  is. 
both  rich  and  respected ;  nevertheless,  he  possesses  no  voice  in 
politics,  can  hold  no  office,  and  is  under  various  other  dis- 
abilities ;  he  pays  an  annual  poll-tax  for  being  permitted  to 
live  amid  the  advantages  and  under  the  protection  of  Athens. 
The  man  is  a  "metic,"  that  is  to  say  a  man  from  abroad, 
who  has  settled  in  Athens:  he  is  a  "resident  alien,"  an 
"  Outlander." 

There  was  little,  if  any,  outward  indication  of  the  respective 
status  of  these  persons.  The  slave  was  not  compelled,  as  at 
Sparta,  to  wear  a  particular  dress,  nor  to  crop  his  hair 
remarkably  close.  He  was  not  a  black  or  coloured  man — 
although  there  may  have  been  a  few  Ethiopians  in  such  a 
capacity  at  Athens — for  slaves  came  from  anywhere  within 
reasonable  reach  of  Athenian  trading.  He  would  for  the 
most  part  look  like  any  other  of  the  poorer  inhabitants  of  the 
city.  If  a  man  of  humble  standing  was  red  or  yellow-haired — 
in  which  case  his  familiar  name  was  apt  to  be  "  Redhead  "  or 
"  Tawny  " — he  was  often,  but  not  necessarily,  a  slave  from  a 
more  northern  part  of  Europe ;  but,  generally  speaking,  if  you 
saw  two  men  hard  at  work  as  shoemakers  or  copper-smiths, 
you  would  have  no  immediate  means  of  distinguishing  which 
was  a  free  and  independent  Athenian  burgher  and  which  was 
a  slave. 

This  is  an  essential  point  which  must  be  forced  home,  a 
point  which  is  of  the  first  moment  when  we  come  to  speak 
later  of  Athens  as  a  democracy, — that  the  first  stratum,  the 
class  of  true  and  full  Athenian  citizens,  was  made  up  of  men 
of  all  degrees  of  wealth  and  poverty,  men  rich  and  men  very 
poor,  men  who  possessed  full  leisure  and  many  slaves,  and 
men  who  not  only  possessed  no  slave,  but  who  performed 
the  same  manual  labour,  skilled  or  unskilled,  as  might  be  at 
the  same  time  performed  by  the  slaves  of  richer  men.  If 
therefore — to  revert  to  our  imaginary  case — you  were  able  to 
look  down  into  the  everyday  streets,  you  would  generally  be 
in  no  position  to  distinguish  the  artisan  or  labouring  citizen 
from  the  artisan  or  labouring  slave  \  nor  could  you  necessarily 
tell  whether  yonder  young  woman  fetching  water  on  her  head 


IV 


CITIZENS,  OUTL ANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN 


35 


from  the  city  fountain  was  a  slave  handmaid  or  the  hard- 
working daughter  of  a  poor  Athenian  house. 

We  must  not,  indeed,  push  this  statement  further  than  the 
truth.  Do  you  see  a  man  richly  clad,  or  with  a  person 
scrupulously  groomed  1  Then  of  course  he  is  not  a  worker, 
and  therefore  not  a  slave,  although,  for  all  you  yet  know,  he 
may  once  have  been  such.  He  is  either  one  of  the  well-to-do 
citizens,  or  else  a  resident  alien,  a  prosperous  "  Outlander." 
Do  you  see  a  man  with  obviously  nothing  to  do,  lounging  and 
talking  in  the  porticoes,  greeted  by  well-dressed  passers-by, 
even  if  he  is  not  particularly  well  dressed  himself  1  Then  he 
is  not  a  slave,  for  slaves  have  neither  the  time  to  lounge  nor 
the  pretensions  to  associate  with  Athenian  gentlemen.  Do 
you  see  a  soldier  ?  Then  you  see  an  Athenian  burgher,  or, 
if  it  is  war-time,  and  he  is  not  a  cavalryman,  he  may  be  an 
Outlander,  but  he  cannot  be  a  slave. 

This  is  all  true  enough.  A  slave,  while  a  slave,  could  not 
be  rich  or  idle  or  a  soldier  \  nevertheless  he  might  very  well 
pass  as  a  poor  and  busy  Athenian  civilian. 

But  let  us,  on  the  other  hand,  suppose  ourselves  to  be 
looking  on  some  day  when  the  Assembly  is  holding  a  meeting. 
Up  to  the  hill  called  the  Pnyx,  and  into  the  large  semicircular 
enclosure,  there  go  streaming  five  or  six  thousand  men,  and 
perhaps  more,  from  all  parts  of  Athens  and.  its  harbour-town 
and  the  neighbouring  country.  Rich  men  and  poor  men, 
landowners  and  peasants,  merchants  and  retail-dealers,  men  of 
leisure  and  blacksmiths,  poets  and  shoemakers,  sculptors  and 
fishmongers,  artists  and  sausage-sellers,  men  with  white  hands 
and  men  with  black  hands ;  up  they  go,  with  equal  votes, 
with  an  equal  right  to  speak  and  to  be  heard,  and  possibly 
with  equal  ability  as  thinkers  and  orators.  Then  certainly 
you  may  be  sure  of  one  thing,  that  not  one  of  these  is  a  slave. 
But  you  must  by  no  means  assume  that  all  those  who  stay 
below  are  slaves.  Many  of  them  are  citizens,  too  busy,  or 
too  indifferent,  or  even  too  superior,  to  attend.  Not  even 
the  fee  which  they  are  to  receive  will  attract  them.  Others 
again  are  the  Outlanders,  who  have  no  business  with  politics. 
Yet  of  those  who  do  go  you  may  be  sure — as  you  could  hardly 
be  sure  elsewhere,  except  when  politics  and  trials  are  toward — 
that  they  are  the  true  and  genuine  burghers  of  Athens.  Let 
this  serve  as  our  first  hint  of  what  precisely  is  meant  by 


36 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Athenian  democracy.  Whether  the  term  is  a  fair  and  adequate 
one,  is  a  point  which  should  become  clearer  as  we  proceed 
farther  in  this  treatise.  Meanwhile  it  should  be  remembered 
that  it  was  a  gathering  like  this  which  commissioned  Pheidias 
and  his  staff  to  adorn  the  Parthenon,  and  which  demanded 
that  city  glorious  and  beautiful,  of  which  a  general  description 
has  been  given. 

Perhaps,  thus  far,  we  have  achieved  one  simple  object. 
That  object  has  been  to  destroy  a  common  but  ludicrous  notion, 
that  the  Athenians  proper  were  all  aristocrats,  all  alike 
leisured,  all  alike  cultured,  and  all  alike  maintained  by  the 
labour  of  slaves.  The  only  respect  in  which  they  were  all 
alike  is  that  they  possessed  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizens, 
while  slaves  and  domiciled  aliens  did  not.  • 


After  this  rapid  general  survey,  let  us  return  to  consider 
each  class  of  the  population  in  somewhat  fuller,  and  perhaps 
more  interesting,  particulars. 

Though  we  are  not  yet  dealing  with  the  Athenian  system 
of  government,  it  is  necessary  that  at  this  point  we  should 
make  tolerably  clear  the  Athenian  conception  of  a  "state." 
It  is  possible  that  in  our  large  modern  communities  we  have 
realised  no  very  exact  notion  of  the  relations  of  ourselves  to 
the  state,  or  of  the  state  to  ourselves,  nor  is  it  here  our 
business  to  discuss  the  question.  Our  concern  is  with  Athens, 
be  Athens  never  so  wrong. 

To  the  Athenian,  then,  the  state  was  a  sort  of  partner- 
ship for  mutual  benefit,  that  benefit  being  the  safety  and 
comfort  of  the  common  life.  The  full  citizen  was  a  sort  of 
partner,  and  had  an  equal  voice  at  those  meetings  for  mutual 
interest  which  were  called  meetings  of  the  Assembly,  or  which 
went  by  other  names.  If  the  state  was  in  danger,  all  the 
partners  must  defend  it  by  military  service ;  if  it  was  enriched, 
all  the  partners  were  entitled  to  some  kind  of  advantage, 
direct  or  indirect ;  it  was  every  partner's  concern  to  make  the 
common  property  splendid,  and  the  common  life  safe  from 
violence  or  injustice. 

Such,  very  roughly,  was  the  Athenian's  notion  of  his 
relations  to  the  state.  And  he  insisted  upon  being  a  full 
partner.    There  was  very  little  which  escaped  the  clear  view 


IV 


CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN 


37 


of  Aristotle,  and  he  perceived  that  the  carrying  out  of  these 
Athenian  principles  depended  on  two  things — the  deliberations 
of  the  Assembly  and  the  administration  of  justice.  A  "  citizen  " 
is  defined  as  one  who  has  the  right  to  vote  in  the  decisions 
of  the  Assembly  and  also  in  the  decisions  of  the  law-courts. 
Wealth  or  other  circumstances  have  nothing  to  do  with  his 
claim  :  that  claim  came  to  him  at  his  birth ;  sometimes,  but 
rarely,  it  comes  by  public  adoption. 

In  the  whole  country  of  Attica  there  were  perhaps  25,000 
adult  male  citizens,  or,  with  their  wives  and  families,  100,000 
burgesses  in  all.  There  were  (we  cannot  be  very  exact) 
probably  10,000  adult  Outlanders,  mostly  living  in  Athens 
itself  and  particularly  in  the  Peiraeus  or  harbour-towTn ;  and 
the  number  of  slaves  in  the  whole  state  has  been  calculated  at 
over  300,000,  although  there  is  reason  to  think  this  estimate 
excessive. 

Inasmuch  as,  for  public  consideration,  the  women  and 
children  citizens  or  burgesses  do  not  count,  we  have  some 
25,000  of  what  we  may  call  full  partners  in  that  great  associa- 
tion known  as  the  Athenian  state  :  to  them,  and  them  alone, 
belonged  the  duties  and  the  privileges  of  guiding  that  state 
and  reaping  its  benefits  ;  and  exceedingly  jealous  were  they  of 
their  standing  and  their  rights.  The  "  purification  of  the  rolls  " 
was  to  them  a  matter  of  the  utmost  urgency  ;  it  was,  literally 
and  unequivocally,  a  religious  duty.  Other  Greeks,  or 
foreigners  not  Greek,  might  be  permitted  to  settle  and  trade 
among  them,  but  such  persons  were  not  partners,  and  they 
could  neither  vote  nor  buy  a  house  or  an  inch  of  land  in  Attica. 
But  among  the  Athenians  themselves  their  system  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  phrase  "  one  man  one  vote  and  a  perpetual 
referendum." 


The  question  will  naturally  occur :  How  then  did  a  citizen, 
man,  woman,  or  child,  become  a  citizen  ? 

The  vast  majority  became  so  by  birth.  They  were 
descendants  of  the  citizens  before  them.  At  some  time  in 
antiquity  the  inhabitants  of  Attica  had  worked  themselves  into 
an  organised  body,  and  its  members,  of  all  ranks,  had  gradually 
struggled  into  an  equality  of  rights.  Thenceforward  all 
persons  born  of  a  citizen  husband  and  a  citizen  wife  were 


38 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


citizens.  All  persons  not  so  born  were  outside  the  pale — unless, 
in  exceptional  cases,  the  whole  body  politic  chose  to  bring 
them  inside  by  adopting  them.  A  resident  foreigner  could  not 
take  out  papers  of  naturalisation  as  with  us.  If  he  lived  in 
the  country  a  hundred  years  he  could  get  no  nearer  thereby. 
He  might  be  a  Rothschild  :  it  was  all  the  same.  Nevertheless, 
the  sovereign  people  was  liberal  on  occasion,  because,  on 
occasion,  it  was  grateful.  The  Outlander  who  had  served  the 
country  conspicuously  in  time  of  war,  or  who  had  been  its 
conspicuous  benefactor  in  any  other  way  ;  even  the  slave  who 
had  rendered  remarkable  service  at  some  critical  moment :  these 
might  be  taken  into  the  fold  and  made  citizens,  and  their 
children  for  ever  after  ranked  as  freeborn  Athenians.  But  this 
honour  was  never  conferred  lightly.  The  public  Assembly 
must  first  vote  to  bestow  this  privilege,  then  it  must  be  re- 
bestowed  at  another  Assembly,  at  which  not  less  than  6000 
citizens  had  voted ;  and  then  an  inquiry  might  be  held,  and 
commonly  was  held,  into  claims  and  character,  before  the 
sanction  was  beyond  recall. 

But  in  the  immense  majority  of  instances  the  full  citizen 
must  be  the  child  of  a  citizen  husband  and  a  citizen  wife,  who 
had  not  only  been  married,  but  had  been  married  with  all  the 
regular  formalities  of  betrothal  and  "  giving  away." 

The  child  of  such  a  marriage  was,  in  his  early  infancy, 
entered  with  certain  ceremonies  on  a  register, — the  register  of 
one  of  those  semi-religious  "  clans "  into  which  all  Athenians 
were  officially  divided ;  his  full  Athenian  legitimacy  was 
inquired  into,  and  was  solemnly  sworn  to  by  the  father.  This 
we  may  regard  as  a  sort  of  certificate  of  baptism.  One  would 
think  all  this  to  be  quite  enough ;  nevertheless,  when  the 
young  man  came  of  age  in  his  eighteenth  year,  and  presented 
himself  to  be  placed  on  the  adult  citizen-roll  of  one  of  those 
local  divisions  or  "  demes "  of  Attica  among  which  again  all 
adult  citizens  were  officially  distributed,  another  strict  examina- 
tion of  his  claims  to  citizenship  could  be,  and  theoretically 
must  be,  instituted.  This  stage  in  his  career  corresponds  in 
some  degree  to  what  we  should  call  "  putting  his  name  on  the 
rolls  "  of  some  electoral  district,  although,  be  it  remembered, 
the  Athenian  districts  were  not  electoral  in  our  sense,  inasmuch 
as  their  parliament  consisted  of  all  citizens,  and  not  of  a  body 
of  representatives. 


IV 


CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN 


39 


Suppose  him,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  to  have  satisfied  the 
last  scrutiny.  He  is  then  a  complete  and  responsible  citizen. 
He  can  marry,  bring  actions  at  law,  and,  if  he  has  been  an 
orphan  or  a  ward,  he  can  now  enter  upon  his  inheritance.  He 
will,  it  is  true,  have  to  serve  for  the  next  two  years  in  the 
garrison  and  frontier  militia ;  but,  when  he  is  free  from  that 
amount  of  conscription,  he  can  settle  down  to  his  work  or  his 
leisure  at  Athens  or  in  the  country,  and,  being  now  twenty 
years  of  age,  he  can  attend  the  Assembly  and  vote  on  an 
equality  with  Pericles  or  Plato.  Until  he  is  thirty,  it  will  be 
bad  form,  though  in  no  way  illegal,  for  him  to  offer  to  mount 
the  platform,  at  least  until  his  seniors  have  said  their  say ;  also, 
until  he  is  thirty,  he  cannot  sit  as  a  juryman  in  those  great 
law-courts  of  which  we  shall  have  hereafter  to  speak.  But, 
when  he  is  thirty,  he  may  be  as  much  of  an  orator  and  a  leader 
as  his  abilities  can  effect. 

A  citizen,  then,  has  to  satisfy  all  these  conditions  and  all 
these  tests.  Nevertheless,  in  actual  practice  there  must  have 
been  at  times — but  only  at  times — a  considerable  amount  of 
laxity.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  occasionally  money  did 
its  insidious  work ;  also  in  bustling  times  of  war  and  national 
need  the  scrutineers  were  not  too  particular ;  they  found  it 
politic  to  wink  at  irregularities ;  and  so  it  came  about  that 
there  was  at  such  times  a  good  deal  of  foisting  on  the  rolls, 
which  made  it  necessary  for  purgations  and  inquiries  to  be 
sometimes  ordered  by  the  Assembly.  It  is  a  common  taunt  of 
the  comedians  and  orators  that  So-and-So  has  really  no  business 
to  call  himself  a  citizen,  being  only  half-bred,  or  an  alien  who 
has  got  upon  the  rolls  surreptitiously.  We  need  not  by  any 
means  believe  this  of  any  man  of  whom  Aristophanes  happens 
to  say  it ;  nevertheless  the  charge  shows  that  such  things  were 
done,  and  not  rarely. 

One  other  point  must  be  noted.  It  did  not  follow  that, 
once  a  citizen,  you  were  always  a  citizen.  The  state  was  a 
partnership  for  mutual  good.  The  Athenians  did  not  believe 
in  the  professional  criminal,  or  any  great  offender,  being  treated 
as  a  partner  in  a  healthy  concern.  If  you  were  guilty  of  public 
treachery,  of  embezzling  public  money,  of  bribing  or  receiving 
bribes  in  connection  with  public  affairs,  of  shirking  military 
service  or  deserting  your  post,  of  perjury,  of  exceedingly  loose 
living,  or  of  insulting  a  magistrate  in  his  official  capacity,  then 


40 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


you  were  degraded  and  disfranchised.  You  could  not  speak  in 
the  Assembly,  nor  hold  any  office,  nor  take  part  in  public 
sacrifice  ;  you  could  not  bring  an  action  at  law,  except  through 
a  proxy  ;  you  could  not  even  appear  in  the  Agora  or  public 
square.  To  reinstate  you  was  a  matter  of  the  greatest  difficulty, 
and  exceedingly  dangerous  for  him  who  proposed  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  had  done  anything  remarkable 
to  benefit  or  glorify  your  state,  you  might  receive  special 
privileges,  such  as  exemption  from  certain  public  burdens,  a 
front  seat  at  all  public  gatherings,  or  free  board  (without 
lodging)  in  the  City  Hall.  This  was  the  nearest  approach  the 
Athenians  made  to  the  modern  conferring  of  titles  and  pensions. 

Here  a  question  naturally  suggests  itself.  If  only  Athenian 
citizens  could  attend  the  Assembly  and  vote,  and  if  Athenian 
citizens  included  all  classes  of  persons,  even  of  the  very  poorest, 
and  if  thousands  of  them  went  up  to  the  Pnyx  to  the  Assembly, 
what  was  to  prevent  an  alien  or  a  slave  or  one  disfranchised 
from  slipping  in  and  voting  ?  The  answer  is  easy.  The 
Athenian  community  was  so  small,  its  life  was  so  public  and 
sociable,  and  the  meanest  labourer  so  jealous  of  his  political 
privileges,  that  any  intruder  would  certainly  have  been 
recognised  and  denounced  to  the  officers  or  scrutineers  specially 
appointed  ;  the  police,  who  were  public  slaves,  would  have 
seized  him ;  and  the  penalty  would  have  been  so  dire  that  the 
game  could  never  be  worth  the  candle. 

Such  was  the  first  class  of  the  Athenian  population — the  only 
class  with  which  we  propose  to  deal,  except  incidentally,  in  the 
succeeding  matter.  The  other  two  classes  are  the  resident 
foreigners  and  the  slaves.  Athenian  society,  says  Aristophanes, 
consists  of  the  flour,  the  bran,  and  the  chaff.  The  flour  is  the 
citizens,  the  bran  is  the  Outlanders,  the  chaff  is  the  slaves. 

There  is  one  interesting  point  of  political  or  social  distinction 
which  we  must  not  forget  to  mention.  If  we  saw  a  citizen,  an 
Outlander,  and  a  slave,  standing  side  by  side,  and  if  we  could 
not  otherwise  distinguish  their  status,  it  would  become  manifest 
as  soon  as  we  learned  the  full  name  by  which  each  of  the  three 
was  styled.  The  citizen  would  be  named,  let  us  say,  "  Demos- 
thenes the  son  of  Demosthenes  of  Paiania  " ;  which  is  as  though 
one  said  "  Thomas  Thomasson  of  Paddington."    He  has  a  name 


iv  CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN  41 


of  his  own,  of  his  father,  and  of  his  district  of  registration. 
But  a  slave  has  no  such  thing  as  a  father,  and  no  registered 
district.  He  is  called  simply,  let  us  say,  Xanthias  or  Pyrrhias, 
which  is  much  as  if  we  named  him  "  Eedhead  ";  or,  if  he  comes 
from  a  particular  country,  he  may  be  given  a  name  common  in 
that  country,  as  if  he  were  called  "John,"  "  Sandy,"  "  Pat,"  or 
"  Taffy,"  as  coming  respectively  from  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
or  Wales  ;  or  again,  he  may  be  ironically  styled  after  a  famous 
king  or  hero  of  that  country,  for  example  "  Midas  "  if  he  comes 
from  Phrygia,  which  is  very  much  as  if  we  had  a  French 
servant  and  called  him  "  Napoleon,"  or  a  Chinese  servant  and 
called  him  "  Confucius  "  ;  or,  lastly,  he  may  be  named  from  his 
country  itself,  such  as  "  Thracian  "  or  "  Syrian,"  as  though  we 
called  a  servant  from  Holland  "Dutchy  "  or  one  from  Scotland 
"  Scotty." 

The  Outlander,  probably  a  foreign  merchant,  would  be 
known  by  his  own  name,  say,  "  Cephalus  "  ;  with  the  addition 
of  his  own  country,  e.g.  "  of  Syracuse,"  and  a  statement  of  the 
Athenian  district  in  which  he  lived,  although  he  could  not  be 
registered  as  of  it,  e.g.  "  living  in  Peiraeus."  We  thus  get 
"  Cephalus,  Syracusan,  living  in  Peiraeus."  Had  he  been  an 
Athenian  citizen,  his  style  would  have  been  "  Cephalus,  son  of 
Lysias,  of  Peiraeus," 

A  final  word  concerning  the  aliens,  or  Outlanders,  before  we 
proceed  to  the  slaves. 

Athens,  the  most  populous  city  in  Greece,  and  a  great 
commercial  centre,  naturally  attracted  numbers  of  merchants 
and  agents  from  other  Greek  states,  from  Asia  Minor,  and  from 
Syria.  They  migrated  to  Athens,  and  especially  to  the 
harbour-town  of  Peiraeus,  almost  precisely  as  German  and  other 
foreign  merchants  descend  upon  London  or  New  York.  Having 
no  part  whatever  in  politics  or  administration,  they  could 
devote  themselves  entirely  to  business,  they  were  often  rich, 
and  were  otherwise  useful  elements  in  society,  though  often 
looked  upon  askance.  But  they  had  no  vote,  could  acquire  no 
real  property  in  Attica,  and  could  not  with  strict  legality  contract 
marriage  with  an  Athenian  ;  moreover,  they  could  not  bring 
actions  at  law  except  through  some  Athenian  citizen.  Imagine 
yourself  to  be  a  French  merchant  migrating  to  London,  and 


42 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


imagine  the  Athenian  rules  to  apply  to  you.  In  the  first  place, 
after  a  legally  specified  term  of  residence,  you  must  select  some 
full  citizen  as  your  patron  or  guardian.  In  all  your  dealings 
with  the  administration  or  the  courts,  you  must  approach  them 
and  be  introduced  through  that  guardian.  You  are  in  a  sense 
his  ward.  If  you  fail  to  select  such  a  patron,  you  at  once 
become  liable  to  prosecution  for  being  without  a  visible  justifier 
of  your  existence.  In  the  next  place  you  must  pay  all  the 
taxes,  and  also  a  special  annual  poll-tax  for  the  right  of  being 
protected  and  made  comfortable  by  the  state.  You  must  also 
pay  a  fee  for  permission  to  ply  your  business  in  the  market- 
place. You  may  be  called  upon  to  perform  military  service  in 
the  infantry,  but  from  the  cavalry  you  will  be  excluded,  and 
therefore  you  cannot  go  jingling  your  spurs  along  the  Agora 
and  wearing  long  cavalier  ringlets  after  the  manner  of  the 
choicest  bloods  of  Athens.  You  may  also  be  called  to  pull 
your  oar  in  the  warships  along  with  the  citizens.  At  the  great 
Panathenaic  festival  you  and  your  women-folk  will  be  required 
to  walk  in  a  certain  part  of  the  procession  in  festal  attire.  If 
you  render  some  considerable  service  to  the  community  you 
may  be  relieved  of  the  poll-tax,  and  put  generally  on  a  level 
with  the  citizens,  except  for  the  franchise.  If  your  service  has 
been  specially  signal,  you  may  even  be  adopted  as  a  full  citizen. 
But  that  is  rare. 

Of  adults  in  this  position  at  Athens  there  were  roughly 
about  10,000;  and  yet  Athens  prided  itself  hugely  and  justly 
on  its  liberality  to  strangers,  as  compared  with  other  Greek 
states,  such  as  the  austere  and  depressing  Sparta.. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  slaves.  Here  it  would  be  well  to 
make  an  effort  to  clear  our  minds  of  certain  almost  inevitable 
false  associations.  The  word  "  slave 97  is  tolerably  sure  to 
conjure  up  notions  of  the  poor  negro — Uncle  Tom  or  Sambo — 
and  of  brutal  treatment  by  Legree  and  his  like.  We  must  do 
our  best  to  get  rid  of  that  picture.  We  are  now  in  pagan 
Athens,  not  in  a  modern  civilisation  alleged  to  be  Christian. 
The  Greek  slave  was  felt  to  be  nearer  in  common  humanity  to 
his  master,  if  for  no  other  reason,  for  the  reason  that  the 
greatest  racial  repellent — difference  of  colour — was  wanting. 
The  Greek  slave  was  commonly  a  white  man  :  he  was  a  servant, 
in  the  unhappy  and  indefensible  position  of  compulsory,  not 


iv  CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN  43 

free,  servantship.  His  master  bought  him  and  owned  him,  as 
one  might  a  horse  ;  but  that  must  not  lead  us  to  the  false 
inferences  which  are  too  commonly  drawn.  A  man  who  owns  a 
horse  may  treat  it  well  ;  he  may  even  love  it  well ;  and  the  more 
used  he  is  to  owning  horses  the  more  likely  he  is  to  give  it 
consideration.  There  were  among  the  Greeks  bad-tempered 
and  heartless  masters  as  well  as  kind  and  considerate  masters  ; 
but  we  may  repeat  the  analogue  of  the  horse,  and  say  that, 
from  the  lowest  point  of  view,  it  was  a  master's  interest  to  feed 
his  slaves  well,  to  keep  them  in  good  condition,  and  to  see  that 
they  were  properly  treated  when  sick.  Thus  mutual  confidences 
and  even  affection  were  wont  to  grow  with  time.  Apart  from 
absence  of  colour,  the  democratic  sentiment  of  the  Athenian 
brought  him  nearer  to  his  slaves,  placed  him  more  upon  terms 
with  them,  than  was  the  case  among  the  aristocratic  planters 
of  Old  Virginia,  and  still  more  among  the  vulgarly  pompous 
aristocracy  which  dominated  imperial  Rome.  This  is  not 
entering  any  plea  for  slavery  ;  above  all  things  we  must  not 
indulge  in  any  special  pleading  for  the  Athenians  ;  but  it  is 
beyond  dispute  that  the  Athenian  treatment  of  slaves  compares 
most  favourably  with  their  treatment  in  any  part  of  the  ancient 
world,  a  world  in  which  slavery  was  universal.  The  only 
people  whose  humanity  to  slaves  probably  exceeded  even  that 
of  the  Athenians  were  the  Jews. 

The  Roman  noble  was  commonly  a  proud  and  arrogant 
person.  The  Athenian  gentleman  had  too  much  good  taste  and 
too  keen  a  sense  of  humour,  and  was  generally  too  clubbable, 
to  be  always  posing  on  his  dignity.  Plutarch  relates  that  a 
Roman  master  had  bidden  his  slaves  not  to  speak  to  him  unless 
they  were  asked  a  question.  He  sent  a  slave  to  invite  Clodius 
to  dinner.  The  guests  arrived,  except  Clodius.  The  master 
sent  the  slave  again,  to  see  if  Clodius  was  coming.  At  last  he 
asked,  "  Did  you  take  the  invitation  ? "  "  I  did,  sir."  "  Then 
why  does  he  not  come?"  "Because  he  refused,  sir."  "And 
why  did  you  not  tell  me  ? "  "  Because  you  did  not  ask  me, 
sir."  And  Plutarch  goes  on  to  compare  this  with  the  Athenian 
slave,  "  who  will  talk  to  his  master  and  discuss  the  news  while 
he  is  digging." 

The  Athenian  domestic  slave  was  commonly  treated  as  a 
member  of  the  family — a  subordinate  and  chastisable  member, 
it  is  true,  but  a  member  of  the  family.    When  he  or  she  was 


44 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


bought  and  brought  home,  the  newcomer  was  welcomed  by  the 
householder  with  a  shower  of  confetti.  He  had  his  share  in 
the  domestic  sacrifices.  He  wore,  as  has  been  already  observed, 
no  distinguishing  dress.  When  he  was  sick,  he  was  looked 
after  by  the  mistress.  Plato  tells  us  that  only  an  ill-bred  man 
would  abuse  his  slaves,  and  Xenophon  remarks  that,  unlike  the 
slave  at  Sparta,  the  Athenian  slave  does  not  cringe  nor  cross 
the  street  when  he  meets  a  freeman.  A  master  might  beat  his 
own  slave,  but  no  other  citizen  dare  in  any  way  injure  or  abuse 
him.  Even  his  master  could  not  put  him  to  death — as  the 
Roman  could — without  judicial  sanction.  If  a  master  proved 
intolerably  cruel,  the  slave  could  run  to  the  temple  of  Theseus 
or  to  some  altar,  and  there  take  sanctuary,  demanding,  not 
indeed  his  freedom,  but  to  be  sold  to  some  one  else ;  and  the 
master  was  compelled,  at  least  by  public  opinion,  to  grant  the 
request. 

It  has  seemed  necessary  to  put  these  observations  first, 
because  of  the  horror  in  which  we  have  come  to  regard  the 
whole  institution  of  slavery.  It  is  so  hard  to  see  the  better 
side  of  that  which  we  detest  as  a  whole.  There  are  those  who 
avow  their  conviction,  after  long  habituation  to  the  Attic 
atmosphere  and  to  this  of  ours,  that,  despite  the  slaps  and 
whippings  which  he  too  often  administered,  the  average 
Athenian  master  stood  on  a  footing  which  was  at  least  as 
humane  as  that  of  the  modern  factory-owner,  who  employs  by 
the  day  what  he  calls  "  hands  "  and  who  gets  rid  of  them  as 
soon  as  they  are  sick. 

Thus  much  said  in  preface,  we  may  for  a  few  moments 
consider  the  practice  of  Athenian  slavery. 

It  is  a  strange  puzzle  that  a  people  so  ardent  for  personal 
freedom  as  were  the  Athenians,  a  people  who  valued  above  all 
things  liberty  and  freedom  of  speech,  should  nevertheless  see 
nothing  wrong  or  unreasonable  in  slavery.  That  they  did  not, 
is  beyond  all  doubt.  Never  were  there  minds  more  free  from 
cant  and  pretence  than  the  minds  of  the  Athenians,  and  par- 
ticularly those  of  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle.  Yet  not  one  of 
these  declares  against  the  institution.  If  they  had  unequivoc- 
ally thought  it  wrong,  they  would  unequivocally  have  said  so. 
On  the  contrary,  they  thought  it  part  of  the  natural  order  of 
things.  All  ancient  peoples  had  slaves.  The  Athenians  had 
possessed  them  from  time  immemorial.    This  might  perhaps  be 


rv 


CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN 


45 


no  logical  defence.  Bnt  Aristotle  remarks,  in  his  matter-of-fact 
way,  that  some  men  are  born  to  be  masters  and  others  to  obey, 
and  that  we  should  see  this  clearly  enough,  if  nature  had  made 
the  difference  of  their  mental  powers  as  visible  as  the  difference 
of  their  bodies.  And  here  steps  in  that  everlasting  disturber 
of  true  reason — national  conceit.  There  is  nothing  more  obtuse 
than  national  or  racial  pride.  What  the  Gentiles  were  to  the 
Jews,  that  the  outer  world  was  to  the  Greeks  ;  its  people  were 
barbaroi,  fit  enough  to  have  their  own  distinctions  at  home,  but, 
as  soon  as  they  came  in  contact  with  the  Greeks,  only  fit  to  be 
tools  and  instruments  for  the  superior  Greek  intellect  to  work 
with.  "  A  slave,"  says  Aristotle,  "  is  a  live  implement "  of  the 
higher  intelligence. 

Nor  can  we  doubt  that  most  of  the  slaves  who  came  to 
Athens  were  socially  and  intellectually  inferior.  Nevertheless, 
there  must  have  been  plenteous  cases  of  the  reverse.  We  need 
not  discuss  this  particular  subject  further ;  we  can  only  say 
that  the  better  minds  of  Greece,  particularly  the  poets, 
recognised  the  hardship  of  the  lot  of  a  slave  and  insisted  on 
his  treatment  as  a  human  being. 

Slaves  came  into  Greece  from  various  sources.  Some,  but 
comparatively  few,  were  born  of  the  slaves  already  existing. 
In  the  second  place,  they  were  obtained  by  conquest  in  war. 
Once  on  a  time  it  was  taken  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the 
conquered  people  were  simply  the  property  of  the  conqueror. 
In  our  period  this  was  still  the  theory,  but  in  practice  it  did 
not  properly  apply  within  the  charmed  circle  of  the  Greek 
world  itself.  When  a  Greek  state  conquered  a  Greek  state,  it 
was  only  in  a  fit  of  extreme  exasperation  that  the  vanquished 
were  absolutely  enslaved.  It  was  becoming  abhorrent  to  Greek 
sentiment  for  Greeks  to  enslave  Greeks.  Ransom  was  accepted 
instead.  When  no  ransom  was  forthcoming,  however,  the 
inevitable  must  take  place,  and  Aristotle's  doctrine  of  superior 
and  inferior  intelligences  must  go  to  the  wall.  Many  Athenian 
slaves  were  therefore  Greeks.  When  the  war  was  not  with 
Greeks,  but  with  other  peoples,  there  were  no  scruples  at  all 
about  enslaving.  The  captives  were  simply  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder.  Most  of  the  slaves,  however,  were  bought  from  dealers, 
who  picked  them  up  or  kidnapped  them  in  Asia  Minor,  Syria, 
and  the  East,  or  in  the  Northern  Balkans  and  round  the  Black 


4  6 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Sea.  Again,  children  who  had  been  exposed  by  their  parents 
were  the  property  of  any  one  who  found  them  and  chose  to 
bring  them  up. 

From  these  various  sources  slaves  were  derived  and  brought 
to  the  Athenian  market,  where  they  were  generally  offered  for 
sale  on  the  first  of  the  month.  Here  a  slave  is  set  on  a  plat- 
form and  inspected.  What  are  his  points  ?  What  can  he  do  ? 
What  is  his  price  ?  They  were  sold  like  horses  at  the  horse-fair. 
A  character  in  the  comic  poet  Menander  fancies  that  there  is 
nothing  left  for  him  but  slavery  :  he  says,  "  I  see  myself 
already  stripped  and  running  round  the  ring  on  sale."  The 
prices  are  difficult  to  express  in  modern  value ;  what  is  called 
from  £4  to  £40  may  really  mean  from  £10  to  £100.  Accord- 
ing to  Plato,  a  "  tip-top  carpenter"  might  fetch  £20  or  £24, 
while  an  engineer  or  architect  might  run  as  high  as  £400. 
When  the  tyrant  Dionysius,  in  a  temper,  sold  the  philosopher 
Plato,  he  fetched  £80  (perhaps  equal  to  £200).  All  this 
calculation,  however,  is  very  illusive.  We  shall  never  know 
exactly  what  a  shilling  piece  would  have  bought  in  classical 
Athens.  Let  us  be  satisfied  to  consider  that  it  would  have 
purchased  at  the  very  least  as  much  as  half-a-crown  does  now. 

When  taken  home  the  slave  was,  on  the  whole,  treated 
tolerably  well,  so  long  as  he  behaved  himself  well.  But  the 
incorrigible  idler,  the  thief,  or  the  runaway,  was  treated  with 
rigorous  measures.  He  was  hung  up  by  the  wrists  and  whipped; 
he  was  strapped  to  a  ladder  and  whipped,  after  the  old  fashion 
of  the  British  navy  ;  he  was  put  in  the  pillory,  like  Daniel 
Defoe  ;  he  was  made  to  wear  a  collar,  or  iron  fetters  fastened 
from  his  waist  to  his  ankles.  He  was  made  to  weep,  as  the 
comic  poet  puts  it,  "  tears  four  to  the  quart."  The  runaway 
was  branded  on  the  forehead,  and,  consequently,  if  he  ever 
became  a  free  man,  he  generally  cultivated  long  hair  over  the 
brows  or  used  a  wig  with  a  fringe. 

By  what  Professor  Mahaffy  and  others  have  rightly  called 
the  only  really  "  stupid  "  practice  among  the  Greeks,  a  slave, 
even  a  respectable  slave,  might  be  racked  by  the  public 
executioner  in  order  to  extract  evidence  against  his  master 
in  a  court  of  law.  Yet  his  master's  consent  was  necessary  to 
the  act. 

Now  suppose  yourself  to  possess  a  considerable  number  of 


iv  CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN  47 


slaves,  male  or  female.  What  will  you  do  with  them  ?  If  you 
choose,  you  may  use  them  all  as  domestic  servants.  There 
will  be  a  maid  to  dress  your  wife,  a  handmaid  or  two  to 
accompany  her  in  the  streets,  housemaids,  laundresses,  nurses, 
wool-workers,  and  the  like.  There  will  be  a  doorkeeper,  footmen 
and  waiters,  a  cook  and  his  staff,  an  austere  attendant  for  the 
boys,  and  so  on.  You  must  not,  it  is  true,  have  too  many 
lackeys  to  attend  you  when  you  walk  in  the  streets  :  two  are 
the  ideal  gentleman's  number ;  if  you  take  three  or  four,  you 
are  obviously  a  pretentious  parvenu. 

If  you  decide  for  fewer  domestic  servants,  and  therefore,  as 
Aristotle  drily  observes,  "  for  better  attendance,"  you  can  put 
some  of  your  slaves  on  your  country  estate  as  farm-labourers 
and  grooms  and  gardeners.  If  you  have  still  too  many,  or  if 
you  have  no  country  estate,  you  will  perhaps  employ  them  in 
a  factory,  making  one  of  them  the  manager.  The  father  of 
Demosthenes  manufactured  swords  and  had  fifty  slaves.  Or  if 
you  do  not  care  to  establish  a  factory  in  person,  you  can  let  a 
number  of  slaves  establish  it  themselves  on  the  co-operative 
system,  to  keep  themselves  and  make  their  own  profits,  so  long 
as  they  each  pay  you  a  few  pence  a  day.  Or,  again,  you  may 
let  them  out  to  somebody  else,  at  so  much  per  head  per  day. 
Nicias  had  1000  slaves  whom  he  thus  hired  out  to  the  lessees 
of  the  mines  in  Thrace. 

But  how  many  Athenians  of  our  period,  do  we  imagine, 
possessed  any  large  number  of  slaves  1  Beyond  all  doubt,  very 
few.  Says  Aristophanes,  "  One  man  has  broad  lands  to  farm, 
and  another  not  so  much  as  a  place  to  be  buried  in.  One 
uses  a  number  of  slaves,  another  has  not  so  much  as  a  footboy." 
We  must  firmly  grasp  this  simple  fact.  By  no  means  every 
Athenian  possessed  even  a  single  slave.  The  rich  Nicias  may 
have  owned  1000,  and  Demosthenes  50,  others  half-a-dozen, 
three,  or  only  one.  It  all  depended  on  their  circumstances. 
A  very  large  proportion  had  no  notion  of  owning  one  at  all. 
It  was,  in  fact,  with  the  Athenians  very  much  as  it  is  with  the 
modern  household.  Some  keep  an  army  of  servants,  some  two, 
some  one,  most  people  none.  There  was  also  the  shabby 
genteel  lady,  who,  not  having  a  maid  to  walk  with  her  in  the 
street,  hired  one  as  required  for  appearance  sake.  The  majority 
of  moderns  are  from  poverty  compelled  to  make  their  own  living 


48 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


and  to  do  their  own  work ;  at  Athens,  if  not  the  great  majority, 
certainly  a  large  proportion  of  the  free  burgesses  were  compelled 
to  dispense  with  a  slave  and  to  accept  hard  and  even  menial 
work  for  their  portion.  In  some  cases  they  even  let  themselves 
out  to  service  and  performed  for  hire  the  duties  which  slaves 
performed  under  compulsion. 

It  must  be  mentioned  also  that  the  state  too  had  its  public 
slaves.  These  included  the  routine  clerks  in  public  offices,  the 
public  executioner,  and  the  police.  The  police  of  Athens  were 
Scythians,  armed  with  a  bow,  and  it  is  curious  to  find  Aristo- 
phanes making  the  Scythian  policemen  talk  their  Attic  Greek 
with  a  very  pronounced  brogue.  Their  function  was  to  keep 
order  at  the  public  meetings,  to  attend  the  magistrates,  and  to 
carry  out  magisterial  instructions.  But  they  had  no  regular 
beats  and  did  not  patrol  the  city.  Perhaps  it  may  be  of  interest 
to  know  that  this  body  of  1200  men,  having  been  first  suggested 
by  a  certain  Speusinos,  were  colloquially  styled  "  Speusinioi," 
just  as  the  English  police  were  dubbed  "Peelers"  and  "Bobbies" 
after  their  father  Sir  Robert  Peel.  This  is  only  one  of  a 
thousand  small  points  in  which  history  curiously  repeats  itself. 

Finally,  the  slave  might  be  set  free  by  his  master;  he  might 
purchase  his  own  freedom ;  or,  for  some  extraordinary  service, 
the  state  might  buy  him  from  his  master  and  make  him  into  a 
citizen.  When  this  was  done,  the  act  and  the  name  were  cried 
by  the  public  crier  in  the  theatre  or  at  other  public  rendezvous, 
so  that  there  might  be  no  mistake  thereafter.  This  was  one 
Athenian  way  of  what  we  should  call  "  announcing  in  the 
newspapers"  or  "gazetting." 

We  now  return  to  our  citizens.  It  should  perhaps  by  this 
time  have  become  sufficiently  clear  that  in  pecuniary  and  social 
position  the  Athenians  were  anything  but  on  an  equality. 
Many  possessed  landed  estates,  many  were  farmers  with  small 
ones,  some  owned  factories,  some  were  merchants  or  shipowners, 
many  were  simple  shopkeepers,  artisans,  seamen,  peasants,  even 
day-labourers  and  hucksters  in  the  market.  The  father  of 
Demosthenes  was  a  sword  manufacturer ;  the  mother  of 
Euripides,  if  we  may  believe  the  comedians,  was  a  greengrocer. 
Plutarch,  speaking  of  Pericles  and  the  great  buildings  executed 
by  the  democracy  under  his  guidance,  asserts  that  one  of  Pericles' 
motives  was  to  supply  work.     These  works  would  "  stir  up 


IV 


CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN 


49 


every  craft,  set  every  hand  at  work,  and  make  practically  all 
the  state  wage-earners.  As  he  did  not  wish  the  vulgar  populace 
either  to  go  without  their  share,  or  to  receive  it  without  doing 
any  work,  he  threw  before  the  people  proposals  for  great 
structures,  and  projects  calling  for  numerous  arts  and  crafts, 
requiring  time  to  complete  them.  .  .  .  The  material  required 
was  stone,  bronze,  ivory,  gold,  ebony,  cypress  wood  ;  the  crafts 
dealing  with  it  included  carpenters,  modellers,  smiths,  stone- 
masons, dyers,  moulders  of  gold  and  ivory,  painters,  embroiderers 
and  workers  in  relief;  persons  were  needed  to  bring  these  things; 
if  by  way  of  the  sea,  merchants,  sailors,  and  pilots  ;  if  by  land, 
cartwrights,  team-breeders,  drivers,  rope-makers,  linen-makers, 
shoemakers,  roadmakers,  and  miners.  Each  trade,  moreover, 
had  its  own  army  of  unskilled  labourers,  acting  as  tools.  In 
fact,  there  was  a  demand  for  persons  of  every  age  and  capacity." 
Now  these  men  were  citizens :  neither  Pericles  nor  the  democracy 
were  concerned  with  the  providing  of  work  for  slaves. 

Nevertheless,  it  may  be  asked,  did  not  the  Athenians  as  a 
rule  despise  work  and  trade  ?  The  answer  is  both  Yes  and  No. 
The  employment  of  slaves  had  made  work  unnecessary  for  some 
classes,  and  these  classes  pitied  those  to  whom  work  was 
necessary.  That  is  human  nature.  It  followed  in  Athens,  as 
anywhere  else,  that  some  human  beings  were  better  dressed,  had 
cleaner  persons,  and  enjoyed  leisure  for  more  mental  and  social 
cultivation  than  others.  The  inevitable  result  was  an  obvious 
outward  advantage  of  those  who  did  not  perform  manual  labour 
over  those  who  did.  And  no  people  in  the  world  ever  set  such  a 
value  on  outward  superiority  of  person  and  manners  as  did  the 
classical  Athenians.  We  must  be  frank  on  this  point.  In  the 
first  place,  they  did  not  despise  work  as  such,  nor  were  they  con- 
stitutionally indolent ;  what  they  disliked  was  the  uncomely 
physical  effects  of  labour,  especially  of  indoor  labour ;  they 
detested  that  which  made  them  acquire  a  stoop,  or  stunted  the 
limbs,  or  misshaped  the  hands,  or  begrimed  the  person.  In 
the  second  place,  they  had  an  intense  passion  for  personal 
independence,  and  their  ideal  of  personal  freedom  of  action  and 
speech  could  hardly  be  attained  by  one  who  had  to  serve  and 
court  the  custom  of  his  neighbour.  In  the  third  place,  the 
vulgar  and  material  concerns  of  the  lower  occupations  prevent 
the  mind  from  gathering  the  culture  and  refinement  which  come 
of  good  company  and  abundance  of  intellectual  intercourse. 

E 


50 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


There  is  perhaps,  after  all,  a  good  deal  of  solid  fact  at  the 
bottom  of  this  attitude.  But  whereas  we  try  to  make  the  best 
of  the  inevitable,  and  leave  it  to  the  snobs  to  despise  the  worker, 
the  Athenians  were  made  the  more  impatient  with  it  because 
they  had  come  to  regard  the  unpleasantness  of  life  as  a  part 
proper  for  slaves.  Hence,  toward  the  end  of  our  period,  when 
the  state  treasury  was  generally  fairly  full,  as  many  citizens  as 
possible  endeavoured  to  get  rid  of  manual  labour  and  to  live, 
however  frugally,  on  payments  from  the  state — fees  for  attending 
the  assembly,  fees  for  jury  service,  for  military  service,  or  fees 
for  great  or  small  offices.  In  modern  times  this  would  mean 
that  they  tried  to  become  members  of  parliament  and  civil 
servants  of  the  order  which  weareth  a  black  coat.  But,  then 
as  now,  they  could  not  all  be  in  the  public  service  at  once ; 
manual  work  many  did  and  must  do. 

Practically,  then,  manual  labour  at  least  was  disliked.  But 
theoretically  the  better  minds  of  Athens  never  despised  either 
work  or  poverty.  Certain  special  occupations,  it  is  true,  were 
held  in  frank  contempt.  Says  Theophrastus  concerning  the 
Reckless  or  Unscrupulous  Man  ;  "  He  is  the  sort  of  person  to 
become  an  inn-keeper  or  a  tax-farmer ;  he  will  decline  no  sort 
of  unseemly  occupation,  but  will  act  as  a  public  crier  or  as  cook." 
An  ancient  inn  was  not  like  a  modern  inn,  and  in  the  occupations 
named,  as  they  were  prosecuted  in  antiquity,  the  citizen  must 
bring  himself  into  humiliating  or  impudent  situations.  Such 
occupations  as  these  were  for  that  reason  openly  despised. 

But  there  is  this  to  be  said  of  classical  Athens.  There  was 
no  titled  aristocracy,  and  there  was  very  little  of  the  social 
ostentation  which  characterises  the  "  wealthy  lower  orders  "  of 
modern  times.  There  was,  at  this  date,  little  of  that  vulgar 
running  after  rich  people  which  is  the  most  deplorable  feature 
of  our  own  day.  In  Athenian  society,  therefore,  the  question  of 
your  standing  depended  much  more  than  with  us,  and  infinitely 
more  than  at  Rome,  on  your  social  qualifications  and  refinement. 
Socrates  was  not  worth  twenty  pounds  in  the  world  ;  but  he 
possessed  a  splendid  intellect  and  much  social  humour,  and 
he  could  dine  when  he  chose  with  Alcibiades  and  Callias  and 
the  rest  of  the  Mite.  Similarly  Plutarch  remarks  of  one  person 
that  "he  was  a  shoemaker,  but  he  was  a  familiar  figure  in  the 
wrestling-schools  and  enjoyed  a  wide  acquaintance."  If  a  man 
could  be  an  artisan  and  yet  prove  that  he  was  cultivated  and 


iv  CITIZENS,  OUTL ANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN  51 


personally  acceptable,  he  had  little  to  complain  of  in  the  matter 
of  social  recognition. 

Unfortunately  such  cases  were  necessarily  few.  The 
Athenian  state  was  democratic ;  but  if  we  are  asked  whether 
Athenian  society  was  equally  democratic,  we  must  make  this 
answer  :  Your  ultimate  social  criterion  was  rather  what  you 
were,  than  what  you  did.  It  was  not,  and  could  not  be,  the  case 
that  each  and  every  citizen,  in  whatsoever  state  of  person  and 
of  whatsoever  manners  and  culture,  was  equally  welcome 
company  to  Pericles  and  to  the  huckster  in  the  market-place. 
There  were  also,  doubtless,  snobs  and  toadies,  but  in  our  period 
they  were  almost  professionally  such,  and  probably  the  Athenian 
idea  of  society  was  on  the  whole  the  most  rational  hitherto 
invented  or  developed. 

But  what  of  the  women  ?  We  shall  here  deal  only  with 
their  status,  not  with  their  private  life,  which  belongs  to  a 
later  discussion.  It  is  a  great  blot  on  Athenian  civilisation 
that  the  position  of  woman  had  retrograded  since  the  days  of 
Homer.  Her  business  now  is  simply  to  be  the  housewife  and 
housemother,  to  apportion  to  the  slaves  their  domestic  work, 
to  regulate  the  stores,  to  weave  and  superintend  the  weaving 
of  garments,  and  to  bring  up  the  girls  and  little  boys. 
She  has  received  no  particular  education  beyond  these  domestic 
accomplishments.  Her  place  is  inside  the  house.  She  may  go 
abroad  at  festivals  and  on  other  recognised  occasions,  if  properly 
attended,  but  the  best  woman,  according  to  the  Athenian 
definition,  is  she  of  whom  "least  is  said  for  either  good  or 
harm." 

There  you  have,  as  succinctly  as  one  can  put  it,  the  accepted 
theory  of  Athenian  marriage.  In  this  respect  the  Athenians 
were  far  less  liberal  than  Sparta  and  other  Grecian  states.  One 
may  be  inclined  to  think  that  there  was  something  racial  in 
this.  In  the  Ionian  Greeks,  including  the  Athenians,  there 
was  a  much  larger  proportion  of  the  earlier  pre-Hellenic  or 
Mediterranean  stock  than  in  the  other  branches  of  the  Greek 
world.  We  may  imagine  that  this  fact  told  in  the  treatment 
of  women.  Again,  it  is  hardly  fair  to  compare  Athens  with 
Homeric  Greece.  Homeric  Greece  scarcely  possessed  cities, 
whereas  the  close  and  crowded  city  life  and  narrow  streets  of 


52 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Athens  rendered  a  certain  seclusion  more  necessary  for  women. 
And,  lastly,  the  Ionian  Greeks  had  certainly  learned  from  the 
luxurious  Asiatics  a  portion  of  their  social  rules  of  good  form  ; 
and  since  it  was  good  form  to  seclude  women  in  Asia  Minor,  it 
became  good  form  to  seclude  them  in  Ionian  Greece.  When 
this  practice  of  seclusion  had  become  general  and  had  been 
established  for  generations,  it  necessarily  followed  that  women 
grew  more  and  more  ignorant  of  the  world,  and  became 
intellectually,  as  they  were  physically,  inferior.  What  more 
natural  than  for  men  then  to  treat  them  as  if  their  ignorance 
and  inferiority  were  natural  rather  than  acquired  ? 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  fact  remains  that  it  was  in  the 
greatest  age  of  Athens  that  women  were  least  important.  To 
a  man  public  life,  or  at  least  life  in  public,  was  everything ; 
his  home  life  hardly  counted.  He  married  generally  a  girl  much 
younger  than  himself,  not  because  he  cared  for  her — perhaps 
he  had  scarcely,  if  ever,  seen  her — but  because  there  was  a 
public  and  social  duty  in  marriage.  A  manage  de  convenance, 
often  arranged  by  a  professional  matchmaker,  was  the 
commonest  form.  To  an  Athenian,  marriage  was  apt  to  be 
irksome  :  "  What !  "  says  one  character  in  a  comedy,  "  Married  ! 
Did  you  say  he  was  married  ?  Why,  it  was  only  the  other  day 
I  saw  him  alive  and  walking  about." 

An  Athenian  might  marry  any  citizen  woman,  except  in  the 
direct  line  of  his  own  descent.  He  could  even  marry — though 
he  rarely  did — his  half-sister  on  the  father's  side.  But  the 
woman  whom  he  married,  probably  when  she  was  sixteen  or 
eighteen,  never  passed  into  the  full  power  of  her  husband.  She 
was  by  law  connected  all  the  time  more  closely  with  her  own 
family  than  with  his.  At  no  time  of  her  life  could  a  woman 
be  without  a  guardian.  If  her  father  was  not  alive,  it  would 
be  her  nearest  male  relative,  and  this  person  remained  her 
guardian  even  when  she  was  married.  After  her  husband's 
death  her  son  was  her  guardian.  She  could  not  legally  make 
any  contract  beyond  a  shilling  or  two — there  was  no  occasion 
for  an  Athenian  to  advertise  that  he  would  not  be  responsible 
for  his  wife's  debts — and  she  could  not  bring  actions  at  law. 
A  dowry  played  the  same  part  as  in  France ;  it  was  practically 
essential.  But  at  Athens  the  dowry  never  became  the  husband's 
property.  If  it  took  the  form  of  money,  he  must  give  security 
for   it.     On  the  other  hand,  the  husband's  property  never 


iv  CITIZENS,  OUTLANDERS,  SLAVES  :  WOMEN  53 

became  the  wife's.  She  had  no  claim  upon  it  when  he  was 
dead. 

For  the  man,  divorce  was  easy.  Legally,  he  had  simply  to 
hand  back  the  dowry,  ask  his  wife  to  give  up  the  keys,  and 
bid  her  return  home.  On  the  other  side,  it  was  exceedingly 
difficult,  though  by  no  means  impossible,  for  the  woman  to 
obtain  a  divorce. 

It  is  sometimes  stated  that  at  Athens  there  was  a  board  of 
officers  appointed  to  keep  a  general  control  over  the  comings 
and  goings  of  women  and  over  their  good  behaviour.  But 
certainly  no  such  board  existed  in  our  period,  and  Aristotle 
observes  that  such  officers — who  did  exist  elsewhere  in  Greece 
— would  be  an  undemocratic  institution  ;  "  for  how  "  says  he, 
"  can  you  prevent  the  poor  from  going  out,  when  the  wives  and 
daughters  are  obliged  to  do  what  slaves  perform  in  other 
families  ?  " 

It  is  perhaps  as  well  to  remark  here,  so  as  not  to  leave  any 
false  impression  until  we  deal  more  fully  with  the  women,  that 
the  theory  was  much  more  strict  than  the  practice.  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  natural  affection  ;  there  was  in  reality  a 
good  deal  of  freedom.  The  very  prominence  which  is  given  to 
women  in  the  comedies  and  elsewhere  shows  their  real  influence. 
Solon  had  to  legislate  that  "  anything  done  under  the  influence 
of  woman  should  be  illegal."  "  Sir,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  "  Nature 
has  given  woman  so  much  power  that  the  law  cannot  afford  to 
give  her  any  more."  That  natural  power  existed  at  Athens  as 
much  as  anywhere  else.  Sophocles  and  Euripides  could  not 
have  drawn  such  types  of  noble  and  commanding  women  unless 
they  had  actually  met  with  something  of  the  kind.  What 
should  we  say  if  we  knew  that,  twenty  centuries  hence, 
some  one  would  take  hold  of  the  words  in  the  English  Prayer- 
Book,  "  Love,  honour,  and  obey,"  as  a  proof  that  the  modern  wife 
had  no  will  of  her  own  ?  In  a  play  of  Aristophanes  the  wife 
says,  "  When  I  asked  my  husband,  '  What  did  the  Assembly 
decide  about  the  negotiations  for  peace  ? '  he  replied,  [  What 
has  that  to  do  with  you  ?  Stop  talking  '  "  ;  and  then  she  adds, 
somewhat  unbelievably,  "  and  I  stopped  talking."  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  one  hears  Demosthenes  describe  a  man  discussing 
politics  with  his  wife  at  dinner.  For  the  present,  let  it  suffice 
to  say  that  the  position  of  the  Athenian  woman  was  in  practice 
more  free  and  agreeable  than  it  seems  in  theory. 


CHAPTER  V 


HOUSE  AND  FURNITURE 

Having  dealt  with  the  several  classes  of  the  population,  and 
having  decided  to  restrict  ourselves  henceforth  to  the  citizens 
proper,  let  us  now  proceed  to  look  at  the  house  in  which  such 
a  citizen  might  dwell,  and  the  sort  of  furniture  with  which  he 
would  surround  himself. 

It  is  of  course  obvious  that,  if  we  describe  a  house,  it  must 
be  simply  a  typical  house  of  the  representative  class,  the  house 
of  a  free  Athenian  citizen  of  average  manners  and  cultivation 
and  of  average  means.  And  if  we  repeat  that  there  were 
humble  houses,  houses  partly  workshop  or  selling-shop  and 
partly  dwelling-house,  often,  moreover,  mere  cells,  smoky  and 
squalid  and  over-crowded,  we  shall  have  sufficiently  safeguarded 
the  truth,  so  far  as  is  necessary  for  the  general  sketch  which 
we  are  here  making  of  Athenian  life. 

Here  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  ancient  Homeric  so- 
called  "  palace,''  nor  yet  with  the  later  spacious  and  luxurious 
mansions  of  Graeco-Roman  times.  It  was  only  at  the  very 
close  of  our  chosen  period,  when  truly  democratic  public  life 
was  coming  to  an  end  under  the  dominion  of  Macedonia, 
that  more  sumptuous  abodes  began  to  be  erected  at  Athens. 
Says  Demosthenes  at  that  time  :  "  If  any  of  you  know 
what  the  house  of  Themistocles,  of  Miltiades,  and  of  the 
distinguished  men  of  those  days  was  like,  you  know  that  it 
made  no  more  show  than  the  general  run  of  houses,  whereas 
the  public  buildings  were  such  as  no  subsequent  edifice 
could  ever  transcend.  .  .  .  But  nowadays  the  public  men 
are  all  so  affluent  that  some  of  them  have  built  their  own 
houses  to  make  more  show  than  the  public  buildings."  This, 

54 


CHAP.  V 


HOUSE  AND  FURNITURE 


55 


of  course,  was  a  rhetorical  exaggeration,  but  it  illustrates 
our  point. 

In  the  city  proper,  large  houses  were  in  any  case  out  of  the 
question.  The  country  houses  were  more  roomy  and  were 
preferred  by  Athenians  who  possessed  both ;  Athenian  families 
loved  to  escape  to  them.  If  anything  like  a  spacious  house 
was  to  be  built  at  Athens,  it  had  to  be  in  the  suburbs.  In  this 
respect,  of  course,  history  manifestly  repeats  itself. 

If  now  we  take  our  typical  house,  it  must  be  understood 
that  it  is  but  typical,  and  that,  as  with  us,  all  sorts  of  arrange- 
ments of  rooms  were  possible.  There  were,  for  example,  houses 
of  one  story,  houses  of  two  storys,  and  houses  with  an  upper 
story  only  half  covering  the  lower. 

But  of  almost  all  houses  alike,  in  the  city  itself,  it  may  be 
said  that  we  of  this  age,  after  making  ourselves  familiar  with 
the  temples  and  porticoes,  could  not  fail  to  be  surprised  and 
disappointed  at  the  common-looking  exterior  and  the  paltry- 
sized  apartments  of  the  private  dwellings.  It  was  not  that 
the  Athenian  was  insensible  to  private  architecture,  nor  that 
he  would  naturally  have  disapproved  of  large  and  imposing 
dwellings ;  but  the  city  began  by  being  poor,  there  was  no 
room  to  spare,  there  was  a  generally  democratic  sentiment 
against  individual  display,  and,  most  of  all,  the  house  was  not, 
at  this  time,  regarded  by  the  lord  and  master  with  the  feeling 
with  which  we  regard  a  home.  He  lived  so  much  in  the  open, 
and  was  so  much  occupied  in  public  and  private  business  and 
in  meeting  his  friends  in  the  gymnasia  and  colonnades  of  the 
city,  that  his  domicile  was  little  more  than  a  place  in  which 
to  sleep,  to  house  his  secluded  family,  and  occasionally  to  give 
a  dinner-party  to  a  few  male  friends. 

Truth  to  tell,  our  information  concerning  the  Athenian 
house  is  not  so  satisfactory  as  concerning  some  other  matters. 
Nevertheless,  some  ground-plans  have  been  laid  bare  in  the 
Peiraeus,  and  we  have  a  certain  number  of  partial  and  rather 
obscure  descriptions  and  a  large  number  of  scattered  notes. 
We  must  not  take  the  ruins  of  Pompeii  as  irrefragable  evidence. 
Pompeii  was  a  Roman  watering-place,  no  doubt  built  under 
much  Greek  influence ;  but  it  was  not  true  Greek  :  it  was  in 
Italy ;  it  was  not  Athens  :  and  we  are  speaking  of  a  period 
four  centuries  at  least  before  the  destruction  of  Pompeii.  We 
can  only  say  that,  in  default  of  anything  better,  Pompeii  would 


56 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


be  of  much  help  in  forming  an  impression  of  the  comparative 
smallness  of  Athenian  houses  and  Athenian  rooms,  and  also 
of  the  general  principle  of  arrangement. 

The  chief  principle  in  respect  of  which  the  Athenian  house 
differed  most  widely  from  ours  was  this — that  it  was  built 
round  one  or  more  open  courts,  and  that  the  light  and  air  were 
obtained  from  inside  from  these  courts,  and  not,  as  with  us, 
from  large  and  numerous  windows.  We  may  sum  up  the 
situation  by  saying  that  there  was  more  privacy  from  outside, 
less  privacy  inside. 

The  front  of  a  one-storied  house  toward  the  street  was 
practically  a  blank  wall.  It  might  show  one  or  two  narrow 
slits  or  lattices  at  nine  or  ten  feet  from  the  ground,  but  not 
necessarily  even  these.  A  two-storied  house  would  generally 
have  somewhat  larger  lattices  overlooking  the  street  on  the 
upper  floor,  and  that  upper  floor  often  overhung  the  street. 
Covered  with  stucco,  or  simply  whitewashed,  or  tinted  in 
monochrome,  the  front  would  rank  with  us  as  virtually  a  blank 
wall.  To  the  curiosity  of  the  outside  world  it  was  entirely 
closed.  But  when  you  stood  in  the  enclosed  court,  you  could 
look  round  upon  practically  every  room,  and  to  pass  from  one 
room  to  another  except  by  way  of  the  court  was  generally 
impossible. 

This  appears  the  right  place  to  remark  that  into  the  walls 
of  many  of  the  larger  houses  a  shop  or  shops  might  be  inserted, 
much  as  they  are  inserted  from  the  street  into  the  structure  of 
our  modern  large  hotels.  The  shop  seldom  belonged  to  the 
householder,  but  was  generally  let.  Sometimes  it  was  entered 
by  the  actual  doorway  of  the  house. 

The  walls  themselves,  that  is  to  say,  the  actual  structure  of 
the  house,  consisted  sometimes  of  a  framework  of  wood  covered 
with  stucco,  sometimes  of  common  stone,  but  generally  of 
bricks,  which  were  only  sun-dried,  not  baked  in  a  kiln,  and 
were  therefore  liable  to  crumble  away  or  to  be  easily  broken 
down.  That,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  our  knowledge 
cannot  be  assisted  in  Greece  by  much  in  the  way  of  actual 
remains  of  walls.  For  the  same  reason,  if  a  Greek  burglar 
desired  to  break  into  a  house,  he  commonly  did  so  by  digging 
a  hole  through  the  wall,  and  the  Greek  for  burglar  is  con- 
sequently "  wall-digger."    Later,  no  doubt,  there  were  houses 


HOUSE  AND  FURNITURE 


57 


of  marble  or  other  stone ;  but  our  period  and  our  typical  house 
are  not  concerned  with  these  materials. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Athenian  houses  were  all 
alike,  whether  in  dimensions  or  arrangement.  There  did  not, 
it  is  true,  exist  the  extremes  which  mark  a  later  period  or  the 
present  day  ;  yet  the  situation  of  a  building,  and  the  circum- 
stances of  the  family,  naturally  determined  the  number,  size, 
and  disposition  of  the  rooms.  We  must  be  satisfied  with  as 
near  a  picture  as  we  can  get  of  the  house  of  a  fairly  well-to-do 
citizen  of  our  epoch.  It  will  be  well  first  to  take  a  glance  at 
the  plan  before  us. 


Fro.  14.— House  at  Delos. 


This  is  the  ground-plan  of  a  house  at  Delos  found  by  the 
French  excavators  in  the  island.  A  front  door  opens  into  a 
passage,  A,  beside  which  is  a  cell,  C,  probably  for  the  porter. 
This  passage  leads  into  a  court,  D,  with  cloisters  round,  and  a 
mosaic  floor  in  the  midst.  Off  the  court  are  rooms,  E,  F,  G ; 
with  a  larger  space  behind,  H,  the  arrangements  of  which  are 
doubtful. 

This  plan  is  more  to  be  trusted  than  the  speculative  schemes 
which  are  to  be  found  in  handbooks  and  dictionaries  of 
antiquities.  It  is  of  the  second  century  B.C.  The  building 
probably  had  an  upper  story  :  it  is  evident  that  in  a  house  of 


58 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


this  kind  space  for  the  women's  rooms  might  be  found  either 
on  a  second  floor,  or  in  the  area  H.  It  is  unlikely  that  houses 
at  Athens  in  the  fourth  century  were  more  elaborate  than  this 
at  Delos. 

Allowing  thus  for  considerable  difference  of  detail,  we  may 
now  assume  that  we  are  paying  a  visit  to  the  town  house  of 
our  citizen. 

In  older  times  railings  were  now  and  then  to  be  met  with, 
but  in  our  period  these,  as  well  as  steps  encroaching  on  the 

street,  were  forbidden. 
The  richer  home  might 
have  its  vestibule  or 
porch,  and  a  step  or 
two  might  mount  to  the 
door  proper  inside  that 
space,  but  such  a  ves- 
tibule did  not  project  so 
as  to  block  any  portion 
of  the  street.  In  front 
of  the  house  stood  an 
emblem  of  Hermes  and 
of  "  Apollo  of  the 
streets."  The  Hermes 
was  regularly  a  bearded 
bust  upon  a  squared 
pillar  of  stone  ;  the 
Apollo  was  frequently  a 
mere  conical  post  serving  as  symbol.  Occasionally,  where  there 
was  a  vestibule,  a  laurel-tree  stood  by  the  Apollo.  The  door 
itself  formerly  opened  outward,  but  the  danger  and  incon- 
venience of  this  were  obvious,  and  the  practice  was  now 
prohibited.  The  double  leaves  of  which  the  door  was  regularly 
composed  may  be  seen  in  the  illustration,  p.  60.  The  hinges 
upon  which  these  opened  were  vertical  pivots  running  into  the 
threshold  and  the  lintel,  and  the  opening  of  a  door  was  apt 
to  be  noisy,  unless  the  pivots  were  oiled,  or,  if  made  of  wood, 
watered.  On  one  leaf  was  a  knocker,  consisting  commonly  of 
the  ring  in  a  lion's  mouth  which  has  survived  in  so  many 
places  till  this  day. 

The  original  purpose  of  the  lion's  head  was  to  scare  away 


Fig.  15. — Vestibule ;  conjectural  view. 


V 


HOUSE  AND  FURNITURE 


59 


evil  influences,  and,  in  keeping  with  this  notion,  it  was  usual 
to  place  over  the  door  an  inscription,  the  favourite  being 
"Let  no  evil  enter  here."  This  practice  lent  itself  to  the 
quips  of  the  sarcastic,  and  we  are  told  of  retorts  such  as 
"  But  how  is  the  owner  to  get  in  1 " 

On  hearing  the  knock  at  the  door,  the  porter  issues  from 
his  lodge  (C)  and  opens  to  scrutinise  the  visitor.  Sometimes 


Fig.  16. — Decorating  a  Hermes. 


the  door  is  already  open,  but  this  is  unusual.  While  waiting 
for  an  answer  to  his  knock,  the  visitor  may  perhaps  be  con- 
templating the  legend  "  Beware  of  the  dog."  The  porter, 
who  is  of  course  a  slave,  is  for  the  most  part  not  distinguished 
by  amiability.  He  is  a  person  of  some  trust  and  discretion, 
since  it  is  his  business  to  watch  all  comings  and  goings,  both 
of  the  free  occupants  and  the  slaves,  and  also  to  see  what  is 
brought  in  and  carried  out.  He  serves  as  buffer  against  the 
outer  world  to  a  domestic  life  which  was  jealous  of  observation. 


60 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


The  Greeks,  says  Plutarch  at  a  later  date,  had  "  knockers  to 
rattle  on  the  doors  so  that  the  stranger  might  not  catch  the 
mistress  in  the  open,  nor  the  unmarried  daughter,  nor  a  slave 
being  chastised,  nor  the  servant-girls  screaming."  The  porter 
is  therefore  an  important  personage,  and  he  has  little  scruple 
in  snapping  out  "  Not  at  home,"  or  even  slamming  the  door 
in  one's  face.  But  to  a  welcome  friend  the  porter,  we  are 
told,  was  all  smiles  and  his  dog  all  waggings  of  the  tail ;  and 
by  such  indications  a  visitor  might  gauge  his  footing  in  the 
house. 

The  porter  has  admitted  us  into  the  passage  (A), — in  the 
floor  of  which  is  probably  inlaid  the  word  "  Welcome," — and 
thence  leads  us  into  the  main  court  (D),  which,  when  there 
are  two  in  the  house,  is  conveniently  to  be  distinguished  as 


Fig.  17.— Door  (in  interior). 


the  "  men's  court."  Eound  the  four  sides  of  a  space  open  to 
the  sky  runs  a  covered  colonnade,  of  which  the  roof  is  supported 
on  perhaps  a  dozen  pillars  of  about  ten  feet  in  height.  Under 
this  cover  seats  may  be  placed,  or  a  constitutional  walk  may 
be  taken.  In  the  open  middle  stands  the  domestic  altar, 
dedicated  to  "  Zeus  of  the  Home,"  at  which  the  housefather 
will  on  occasion  officiate  amid  the  family  and  the  slaves.  The 
floor,  at  our  period,  is  made  of  concrete,  varied  with  simple 
patterns,  but  without  any  of  that  elaborate  mosaic  -  work  which 
came  in  at  a  later  date  from  Pergamus.  To  either  hand 
there  open  off  a  number  of  rooms  (E,  etc.),  most  of  which  we 
should  rather  regard  as  cells.  Whether  these  were  provided 
with  doors  or  portieres  or  both,  was  apparently  a  matter  which 
depended  on  their  use  and  on  the  tastes  of  the  household. 
The  smallest  of  them  are  sleeping-rooms  for  males,  whether 
slaves  or  visitors,  and  such  a  room  may  be  put  down  as  being 
of  not  more  than  one-third  of  the  size  which  we  should  regard 


HOUSE  AND  FURNITURE 


61 


as  adequate.  Somewhere,  however,  there  is  necessarily  an 
apartment  of  considerable  size  to  be  used  as  the  dining-room 
for  the  male  parties  which  are  frequently  given,  and  which 
we  are  later  to  describe.  It  is  the  court  itself  which  is 
commonly  used  as  reception-room,  sitting-room,  and  place 
for  the  family  meals.  "  My  wife,"  observes  one  litigant  in 
Demosthenes,  "  was  lunching  with  the  children  in  the  court." 
Tame  birds  or  other  animals  are  also  not  uncommon  in  it. 

And  here  nothing  could  be  better  than  to  quote  from  the 
Protagoras  of  Plato  a  passage  which  will  excellently  illustrate 
what  has  been  so  far  said.  Socrates  and  Hippocrates  visit 
the  wealthy  Callias,  who  is  entertaining  distinguished  professors. 
"We  proceeded  on  our  way  until  we  reached  the  vestibule 
of  the  house ;  and  there  we  stopped,  in  order  to  conclude  a 
dispute  which  had  arisen  as  we  wrere  going  along ;  and  we 
stood  talking  in  the  vestibule  until  we  had  finished.  And 
I  think  that  the  doorkeeper,  who  was  probably  annoyed  at 
the  great  inroad  of  the  Sophists,  must  have  heard  us  talking. 
At  any  rate,  when  we  knocked  at  the  door,  and  he  opened 
and  saw  us,  he  grumbled  :  '  They  are  Sophists — he  is  not  at 
home/  and  instantly  gave  the  door  a  hearty  bang  with  both 
hands.  Again  we  knocked,  and  he  answered  without  opening  : 
'  Did  you  not  hear  me  say  that  he  is  not  at  home,  fellows  ? ' 
'  But,  my  friend/  said  I,  '  you  need  not  be  alarmed  ;  for  we 
are  not  Sophists,  and  we  are  not  come  to  see  Callias,  but  we 
want  to  see  Protagoras ;  and  I  must  request  you  to  announce 
us.'  At  last,  after  a  good  deal  of  difficulty,  the  man  was 
persuaded  to  open  the  door. 

"  When  we  entered  we  found  Protagoras  taking  a  walk  in  the 
portico.  ...  A  train  of  listeners  followed  him.  .  .  .  Nothing 
delighted  me  more  than  the  precision  of  their  movements ; 
they  never  got  into  his  way  at  all ;  but  when  he  and  those 
who  were  with  him  turned  back,  then  the  band  of  listeners 
parted  regularly  on  either  side ;  he  was  always  in  front,  and 
they  wheeled  round  and  took  their  places  behind  him  in 
perfect  order.  After  him,  as  Homer  says,  ' 1  lifted  up  my 
eyes  and  saw ?  Hippias  the  Elean  sitting  in  the  opposite 
portico  on  a  chair  of  state,  and  around  him  were  seated  on 
benches  Eryximachus  and  others ;  they  were  putting  to  Hippias 
certain  physical  and  astronomical  questions,  and  he,  ex  cathedra, 
was  determining  their  several  questions  to  them.    Also  '  my 


62 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


eyes  beheld '  Prodicus  :  he  had  been  lodged  in  a  room  which 
had  been  a  storeroom ;  but,  as  the  house  was  full,  Callias  had 
cleared  this  out  and  made  the  room  into  a  guest-chamber.  Now 
Prodicus  was  still  in  bed,  wrapped  up  in  sheepskins  and  bed- 
clothes .  .  .  and  there  were  sitting  by  him  on  the  couches 
near,  Pausanias  and  others." 

Separating  the  reception  rooms,  or  men's  quarters,  from  the 
more  private  apartments,  or  women's  quarters,  there  is  an 
intermediate  door.  Through  this  door  strangers  are  not 
admitted,  and,  in  the  stricter  households,  the  unmarried 
daughters  do  not  come  from  beyond  it,  unless  with  special 
reason  and  permission.  It  was,  of  course,  a  heinous  social 
offence  to  act  like  the  accused  in  a  speech  of  Demosthenes  : 
"  He  came  to  my  house  one  night  intoxicated,  broke  the  doors 
open,  and  entered  the  women's  quarters  ! " 

In  this  more  secluded  part  of  the  house  are  the  bed-chambers 
of  the  master  and  mistress  and  of  the  unmarried  daughters. 
There  are  also  the  storeroom,  rooms  for  the  handmaidens  to 
work  and  sleep  in,  a  kitchen,  and  other  offices.  Behind  all 
these  there  is  sometimes  a  garden  with  a  door  leading  into  it. 

So  far  it  has  been  assumed  that  the  house  is  of  but  one 
story.    But  in  the  city,  where  ground-space  was  so  limited,  a 

second  floor  was  generally 
indispensable.  This  might 
extend  over  the  whole  area 
of  the  lower  rooms,  in  which 
case  it  frequently  overhung 
the  streets,  as  in  many  old 
English  towns,  or  it  covered 
but  a  portion,  and  so  formed 
what  was  called  a  "  tower." 
There  appears  to  have  been 

Fig.  IS. — Upper  lattice.  no    rule   as    to   who  should 

occupy  the  upper  story,  and 
the  practice  naturally  differed  according  to  the  convenience  of 
a  household.  Sometimes  it  would  be  the  women,  sometimes 
the  slaves.  Often  the  upper  story  was  let,  and  in  such  cases 
was  approached  from  the  street  by  separate  stairs.  Though 
windows  were  practically  unknown  on  the  lower  floor,  the 
upper  might  be  provided  with  casements  looking  on  the  street. 
In  these  there  was  no  glass  or  other  transparent  material,  but 


V 


HOUSE  AND  FURNITURE 


63 


wooden  doors  were  opened  and  shut.  Meanwhile  the  roof 
itself  was  commonly  flat,  and  so  served  as  a  vantage-ground 
for  viewing  processions  and  shows.  In  other  cases,  however, 
it  was  gabled,  the  pinnacle  being  known  as  "  the  eagle." 

The  better  houses  contained  a  cistern  or  even  a  well.  The 
water  which  collected  about  the  house  was  carried  off  by  a 
drain  into  the  street.  Chimneys,  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  did 
not  exist.  The  fires — which  were  seldom  necessary — consisted 
of  wood  or  charcoal,  carried  in  braziers  to  the  place  where  they 
were  needed,  and  the  smoke  found  its  way  out  as  best  it  could. 


Fig.  19.— Brazier. 


In  the  kitchen  alone  was  there  a  fixed  fireplace  provided  with 
some  sort  of  flue.  This  certainly  carried  the  smoke  to  a  hole 
of  outlet,  which  might  be  covered,  when  not  required,  by  a 
board  or  trap-door. 

Of  decorative  fixture  there  was  little.  Beyond  the  patterns 
in  the  cement  floor  there  was  scarcely  anything  except  stucco 
ornaments  and  coloured  traceries  on  the  ceiling.  In  the  lesson 
in  modern  manners  which  the  son  gives  to  the  father  in  the 
Wasps  of  Aristophanes,  it  is  enjoined  that  he  shall  "  take  a  view 
of  the  ceiling."  If  the  painter  Agatharchus  was  kept  a  prisoner 
in  the  house  of  Alcibiades  until  he  had  decorated  it,  we  are 
nevertheless  unable  to  say  what  precise  shape  the  decorations 
took. 


64 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


After  this  brief  survey  of  the  imaginary  typical  house,  it 
remains  to  recall  to  mind  that  a  portion  of  it  (such  as  B)  might 
be  let  or  used  as  a  shop.  Also  it  was  not  uncommon  for  a 
horse  or  donkey  to  be  stabled  in  the  house,  apparently  close  to 
the  door  and  the  porter's  lodge. 


The  furniture  of  a  classical  Athenian  home  was  very  simple ; 
it  would  undoubtedly  be  regarded  by  us  as  very  scanty.  In 
compensation,  it  was  for  the  most  part  extremely  happy  in  the 
blending  of  gracefulness  and  utility.  In  what  the  contemporary 
auctioneer  might  have  described  as  an  "  elegantly  furnished 
mansion"  there  was  perhaps  little  that  we  should  call  cosy. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  was  an  absence  of  the  plethora  and 
welter  of  things  upholstered  which  are  only  too  common  in 


modern  times.  There  was  sufficiency  for  real  use,  and  the 
sufficiency  was  rendered  doubly  sufficient  by  the  satisfaction 
with  which  the  eye  could  always  rest  upon  it. 

Athenian  chairs  were  of  several  kinds,  some  being  without 
backs  and  often  foldable,  others  provided  with  backs  but  either 
with  or  without  arms.  The  chief  types  are  shown  in  our 
illustrations.  None  of  the  chairs  are  upholstered,  but  cushions 
are  used  when  desired.  The  legs  and  flat  surfaces  of  the  more 
costly  chairs  are  often  inlaid  with  silver,  tortoise,  or  ivory. 
Couches  also  play  a  great  part  in  Athenian  furnishing.  These 
are  either  beds  or  sofas,  the  latter  being  used  for  ordinary 
reclining  or  by  the  men  at  their  dinner-parties.  Among  the 
rich  a  point  was  made  of  securing  elegance  of  shape  in  the 
frames,  whether  of  bronze  or  wood ;  and  here  again  the  flat 
surfaces  were  much  inlaid  and  the  legs  made  sumptuous  with 
silver  or  ivory.  The  bed  proper  consisted  of  such  a  frame  with 
canvas  or  leather  thongs  stretched  from  side  to  side ;  on  this 


Fig.  20.— Chairs. 


V 


HOUSE  AND  FURNITURE 


65 


were  laid  a  mattress  stuffed  with  flock,  pillows  filled  with  wool 
or  feathers,  and  coverlets  of  wool  or  skins  dyed  with  purple 
and  other  colours.  Meanwhile  the  poor  were  content  with 
truckle-beds,  or  even  with  mats,  or  canvas  bags  stuffed  with 
leaves. 

Tables,  which  were  of  either  three  or  four  legs,  and  of  light 
and  graceful  structure,  were  scarcely  in  use  except  at  meals, 
when  they  were  brought  in  and  carried  out  with  the  food.  They 
apparently  fulfilled  no  other  of  the  purposes  of  the  modern 


Fig.  21.— Lamp  and  lamp-stand. 

table.  Even  writing  was  done,  not  upon  a  table,  but  upon  the 
right  knee,  which  was  raised  for  the  purpose.  For  the  forms 
of  couches  and  tables  see  the  scenes  of  feasting,  Chapter  VII. 

A  special  attention  was,  however,  spent  upon  the  carved  and 
inlaid  chests,  which  served  as  wardrobes  and  plate-safes,  and 
incidentally  as  seats.  Athenian  clothes  were  such  that  they 
could  most  conveniently  be  folded  and  laid  flat,  and  both 
garments  and  articles  of  value  were  most  easily  kept  by  locking 
and  sealing  in  a  chest. 

Other  articles  of  furniture  consisted  of  braziers,  used  both 
for  warming  and  for  the  burning  of  perfumes  ;  lamps,  either 

F 


66 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  V 


hanging  by  chains  or  placed  upon  stands  ;  baskets  of  various 
shapes  and  colours  ;  hand-mirrors  of  polished  bronze,  mostly 
circular,  with  reliefs  worked  upon  the  back  and  along  the 
handles ;  and,  above  all,  an  abundant  variety  of  vessels  in 
bronze,  silver,  and  earthenware,  intended  mostly  for  use,  but 
always  for  ornament.  The  Greek  names  of  different  recognised 
species  of  cups,  vases,  and  dishes,  make  a  formidable  catalogue. 
Some  few  specimens  only  can  be  illustrated  here  in  Chapter 


VII.  Fig.  22  represents  a  quantity  of  household  furniture 
burned  by  Hercules  in  a  fit  of  madness,  from  a  vase-painting. 

True  carpets  were  unknown  at  this  date,  but  a  few  rugs 
and  curtains  were  not  uncommon. 

Sparing  in  quantity  as  the  furniture  of  the  Athenians  was, 
it  is  certain  that  they  had  learned  the  secret  of  lending  an 
artistic  effect  without  destroying  the  use  or  comfort  of  the 
article.  Having  secured  the  shape  which  both  pleased  the  eye 
and  served  the  purpose,  they  sought  no  novelty  in  this  domain, 
but  were  content  to  retain  the  same  unimprovable  types  for 
centuries. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER) 

Our  typical  citizen  is  the  adult  male  citizen  who  enjoys  the 
leisure  to  dispose  of  his  day  according  to  his  own  choice.  It  is 
one  of  those  days  on  which  there  is  no  meeting  of  the  Assembly, 
no  sitting  of  a  court  in  which  he  is  to  serve  as  one  of  the  great 
jury  of  five  hundred,  no  performance  in  the  theatre,  and  no 
religious  festival.  The  procedure  of  days  on  which  these  public 
events  take  place  requires  separate  treatment.  We  are  here 
concerned  only  with  the  round  of  a  typical  full  day  of  social 
life. 

Incidentally  we  shall  speak  of  the  unleisured  Athenian — 
the  artisan  or  dealer  or  wage-earner — whenever  we  come  across 
him  while  accompanying  our  friend  throughout  the  day. 

Well,  our  Athenian,  being  a  man  of  some  means,  probably 
lives  in  the  quarter  named  Collytus,  or  somewhere  near  the 
Cerameicus ;  for  the  several  quarters  of  Athens  were,  like 
those  of  our  own  towns,  more  and  less  fashionable.  He  rises 
at  a  very  early  hour,  somewhere  about  daybreak.  The 
Athenian  is  no  slug-a-bed,  whether  he  be  rich  or  poor.  He 
would  regard  as  unpardonably  late  our  usual  hour  for  catching 
our  suburban  train,  and  by  the  time  our  city  offices  are  open 
he  would  have  got  half  through  the  business  (if  he  had  any) 
and  also  some  of  the  pleasure  of  the  day.  If  he  wishes  to 
make  a  call  on  a  friend,  and  to  be  sure  of  finding  him  at  home, 
he  will  do  so  immediately  after  dawn.  When  Hippocrates  was 
eager  to  take  Socrates  with  him  to  call  on  Professor  Protagoras, 
who  had  just  arrived  in  Athens,  he  came  along  to  Socrates' 
house  before  daylight  and,  as  Plato  has  it,  "gave  a  tremendous 
thump  on  the  door  with  his  stick."    He  made  Socrates  get  up 

67 


68 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


from  his  truckle-bed,  and  was  all  impatience  to  start.  But 
Socrates  replies,  "Not  yet,  my  good  fellow,  it  is  too  early. 


Fig.  ~3. — Portrait  statue  :  Sophocles. 


But  let  us  take  a  turn  in  the  court  and  wait  about  till  day- 
break ;  when  the  day  breaks,  then  we  will  go."  And  here  we 
may  recall  how,  as  described  in  our  account  of  the  Greek  house, 


vi      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  69 


they  found  Protagoras  already  walking  about  under  the 
verandah  round  the  court,  and  how  there  was  already  a  house- 
ful of  other  callers. 

Rising  from  his  bed,  our  citizen  washes  his  face  and  hands 
and  dresses  for  the  street. 

Before  we  observe  him  and  his  attire  as  he  issues  from  his 
doorway,  let  us  remark  that  he  breaks  his  fast — literally  that 
and  nothing  more — by  taking  the  first  meal,  if  you  can  call  it  a 
meal,  of  the  day.  This  consists  of  a  few  mouthfuls  of  bread 
dipped  in  neat  wine.  Practically  it  corresponds  to  the  coffee 
and  roll  taken  in  France,  or  to  the  early  tea  and  bread-and- 
butter  common  among  ourselves.  He  will  require  nothing  else 
till  nearly  mid-day,  the  time  of  the  French  dejeuner,  or  of  a  very 
early  lunch.  Then  he  will  make  a  substantial  meal ;  but,  in 
the  meanwhile,  what  our  own  ancestors  called  his  "  sop  in 
wine  "  will  suffice  him ;  for,  whatever  may  be  his  faults,  he  is 
no  glutton. 

His  dress  in  this  classical  time  is  very  simple,  as  you  may 
perceive  from  any  portrait  statue  of  Sophocles  or  Demosthenes. 
But  it  must  be  again  premised  that,  despite  this  general 
simplicity,  the  Athenians  by  no  means  all  dressed  in  garments 
of  precisely  the  same  number  or  the  same  material  or  worn  in 
precisely  the  same  style  or  of  the  same  colour.  It  is  true  that 
they  could  have  made  no  attempt  to  compete  with  our  modern 
fearful  and  wonderful  diversity.  Apart  from  the  head  and 
feet,  the  Athenian  covered  his  body  with  two  articles  of  attire 
at  most,  often  with  only  one.  It  is  also  worth  while  noting 
here  that  astonishingly  little  change  of  fashion  occurred 
during  long  centuries  of  Grecian  history.  The  practical  Greek 
had  discovered  what  costume  suited  his  climate,  and,  being 
artistic  as  well  as  practical,  he  had  settled  upon  a  costume 
which  did  justice  to  the  scenic  possibilities  of  the  human  form. 
As  in  buildings  and  articles  of  furniture,  he  first  developed 
what  was  suitable,  then  rendered  it  artistic,  and  then  adhered 
to  it  with  an  intelligent  loyalty  which  we  might  well  imitate,  if 
ever  we  are  fortunate  enough  to  combine  similarly  the  useful 
with  the  decorative. 

The  costume  of  a  leisured  Athenian  would  not,  it  is  true, 
prove  the  best  possible  for  our  climate  or  working  conditions  ; 
neither  would  it  suit  modern  European  notions  as  to  the 


70 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


legitimate  amount  of  revelation  of  the  human  form  divine. 
But  for  a  leisured  man  in  ancient  Athens,  and  for  the  very 


Fig.  24.— Demosthenes. 

different  conception  which  was  then  entertained  concerning  the 
said  human  form,  it  was  perfect  in  its  kind. 

The  Athenian  male  attire,  we  have  said,  consisted  of  but 


vi       SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  71 


Fig.  25.— Tunic  :  statue  at  Delphi. 

woollen,  draped  round  the  body.  If  one  took  off  the  garments 
of  which  the  illustrations  are  given,  and  spread  them  out,  it 
would  be  found  that  they  were  in  general  nothing  more  nor 


72 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAF. 


less  than  such  oblongs  or  squares.  If  the  tunic  was  partly 
sewn  to  shape,  that  sewing  was  the  minimum  possible.  Briefly 
stated,  the  ordinary  full  dress  consisted  of  an  under  tunic  and 
an  upper  robe  or  mantle.  But,  according  to  the  weather,  or 
his  taste,  or  his  occupation,  or  the  function  in  which  he  was  to 

be  engaged,  the  Athenian  might 
wear  both  of  those,  or  only 
the  under  tunic,  or  only  the 
mantle.  If  he  wore  the  tunic 
only  he  was  said  to  be  "in 
undress."  If,  like  Socrates,  he 
wore  only  the  robe,  he  was 
doing  a  very  common  thing. 
You  would  not,  as  a  matter 
of  good  form,  address  the 
sovereign  people  in  your  tunic 
only,  but  you  might  and  did 
in  the  robe  only.  Such  con- 
duct was  perhaps  not  strictly 
ideal,  but  statues  indicate  that 
it  was  not  incorrect  in  prac- 
tice. 

The  tunic  worn  by  a  man 
of  leisure  had  two  arm-holes, 
but  no  sleeves.  It  fell  to  just 
above  the  knee,  and  could  be 
girdled.  A  workman's  tunic 
had  only  a  left  arm-hole,  while 
the  right  shoulder  and  arm 
were  quite  free  and  the  tunic 
came  round  underneath  them. 

Fig.  26.— Workman's  tunic :  Hephaestus.       He  commonly  Used  a  girdle. 

This  freedom  of  the  right  arm, 
as  may  be  seen  from  the  illustrations,  was  also  frequently 
consulted  by  gentlemen  in  their  manner  of  wearing  the  robe. 

In  putting  on  the  upper  robe — the  himation,  as  it  was  called 
— you  took  the  long  piece  of  cloth,  threw  it  over  your  left 
shoulder,  then  brought  it  across  the  back  and  either  over  or 
under  the  right  arm,  as  you  thought  fit  or  convenient,  and 
then  threw  it  again  over  your  left  shoulder  or  arm.  If  properly 
adjusted,  the  mantle  then  held  naturally  in  place,  although 


vi       SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  73 


small  weights  might  be  attached  to  the  lower  border  to  assist 
that  purpose.  Simple  as  it  appears,  to  do  this  with  neatness 
and  grace  was  as  difficult  as  all  good  draping  is.  The  estima- 
tion of  what  we  call  the  good  and  bad  "cut"  of  our  clothes 
corresponds  almost  exactly  to  the  estimation  in  which  the 
Athenians  held  what  was 
simply  graceful  or  awkward 
adjustment  of  the  long 
mantle.  If  we  pause  to 
reflect  upon  that  fact,  we 
may  perceive  that  it  does 
the  usual  credit  to  Athenian 
taste  and  artistic  principle. 
Nor  was  it  merely  necessary 
to  make  the  mantle  hang 
well ;  it  must  also  fall  to 
the  right  length,  which  was 
to  the  lower  part  of  the 
shins,  over  which  it  crossed 
obliquely.  If  it  fell  short 
of  this,  you  were  dressed 
like  a  rustic  ;  if  it  trailed  on 
the  feet,  your  style  was  loud 
and  pretentious.  It  must 
not  be  supposed  that  we 
are  here  making  too  much 
of  details.  The  Athenians 
themselves  saw  real  defects 
of  character  in  either  sloven- 
liness or  loudness.  Demos- 
thenes does  not  think  it  OUt         Fig.  27.— Bordered  garment :  Demeter. 

of    place   to   prejudice  his 

opponent  even  in  a  law-court  by  remarking  that  "  he  marches 
through  the  Agora  with  his  mantle  down  to  his  ankles,  striding 
along  and  puffing  out  his  cheeks." 

In  point  of  colour  a  crowd  of  Athenians  would  appear  by 
no  means  so  monotonous  as  is  usually  supposed.  They  were 
not  all  dressed  in  white.  It  is  true  that  both  tunic  and  mantle 
were  commonly  white  or  nearly  so,  especially  with  staid  or 
elderly  citizens  ;  nevertheless,  colours  were  not  rare,  especially 
with  young  or  fashionable  men.    Purple,  red,  frog-green,  and 


74 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


black  were  to  be  met  with,  but  yellow  was  a  colour  for  women 
only.  Even  if  the  whole  material  were  not  coloured,  it  was 
frequently  adorned  with  coloured  borders,  embroidery,  or 
stripes,  either  worked  in  or  sewn  on  ;  and  not  seldom  fringes 
or  tassels  were  added.    Doubtless  when  a  certain  Ionian  came 

to  Athens,  and  wore  a  purple  cloak 
with  gold  fringe,  he  was  considered 
altogether  too  gorgeous  a  being;  but 
equally,  beyond  doubt,  the  young 
bloods  and  dandies  of  Athens  affected 
a  good  deal  of  showy  and  expensive 
colour. 

And  here  we  must  be  reminded  to 
say  that,  besides  our  ordinary  type  of 
modestly,  but  carefully,  attired  citizen 
in  his  tunic  and  mantle  (or  only  his 
mantle),  you  would  see  in  the  Athenian 
streets  sundry  special  types,  distinctly 
attired.  There  is  the  young  man 
just  come  of  age  at  eighteen.  For 
the  space  of  two  years  he  wears, 
instead  of  the  long  mantle  and  sandals 
of  the  older  man,  a  hat,  shoes,  and  a 
shorter  and  bright  cloak  (or  chlamys) 
fastened  over  his  shoulder  by  a 
brooch  or  buckle.  Of  him  a  rough 
and  incomplete  illustration  is  forth- 
coming. There  is  again  the  deliberate 
Fig.  28.— Bphebus  in  chlamys.    imitator    of    the    Spartans,    often  a 

philosopher  who  affects  to  scorn 
fashion  and  comfort.  This  man  wears  a  short  rough  cloak, 
generally  from  a  pure  spirit  of  ostentatious  contrariety. 

Artisans  often  wear  leather  jerkins.  Shepherds  and  peasants 
may  come  into  town  wearing  clothing  of  skins  with  the  hair 
or  wool  on  them,  while  the  very  poorest  of  either  citizens  or 
slaves  may  even  be  seen  in  sacking  or  a  sort  of  mat  work. 

Our  representative  citizen  will  in  ordinary  circumstances 
wear  no  covering  to  his  head.  Nature  was  liberal  to  the 
Greeks  in  respect  of  hair,  and  in  town  a  head-cover  was 
generally  unnecessary  and  certainly  unusual.  An  invalid 
might  indeed  use  a  cap,  and  a  traveller  in  the  country  would 


vi      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  75 

either  wear  a  close  rimless  cap  or  a  hat  with  a  brim,  hardly 
differing  from  certain  shapes  of  felt  hats  well  known  among  us. 
But  one  cannot  imagine  a  Pheidias  or  a  Plato  or  a  Demosthenes 
walking  in  the  Agora  with  anything  but  a  bare  head.  Slaves, 
and  persons  much  exposed  to  the  weather,  such  as  peasants 
and  sailors,  commonly  wore  skull-caps,  but  our  friend  who  is 
walking  out  this  morning  is  protected  only  by  his  natural 
locks. 

But  he  will,  in  all  probability,  wear  something  on  his  feet. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  he  should.  In  the  house  he  will 
commonly  go  barefoot  or  wear  slippers  ;  when  he  steps  outside 
he  will  still  please  himself.  Much  will  depend  on  the  time  of 
year.  The  streets  were,  as  we  have  explained,  not  of  the  best, 
and  both  cleanliness  and  comfort  were  consulted  by  shoes,  or 
at  least  by  sandals.    Hardy  men  of  the  old  school,  like  Socrates 


or  Phocion,  elected  to  walk  abroad  with  bare  feet.  Socrates 
preferred  to  do  so  even  in  winter,  and  many  of  the  poor  had 
no  choice  in  the  matter.  The  ostentatious  philosophers,  who 
were  just  now  mentioned  as  wearing  short  mantles,  also  showed 
their  artificial  hardihood  by  refusing  shoes.  Meanwhile  the 
really  hardy  men,  such  as  the  peasants  and  soldiers,  were 
always  glad  to  wrap  their  feet  in  winter  time  in  brogues  of  raw 
hide,  or  in  felt  or  lambskins. 

The  only  condition  really  necessary  to  be  obeyed  by  our 
typical  citizen  is  that,  if  he  wears  shoes  or  sandals  at  all,  they 
shall  fit  him  properly  and  be  put  well  on.  He  is  not  bound  to 
wear  them  to  show  that  he  is  a  gentleman,  but,  if  shod,  he  is 
bound  to  be  shod  as  a  gentleman  ought.  It  is  only  a  rustic 
who  wears  shoes  too  big  for  his  feet,  or,  as  Aristophanes  puts  it, 
"  is  swimming  in  his  shoes." 

The  simplest  form  of  foot-covering  was  the  sandal.  This 
consisted  of  a  leather  sole,  or  sometimes  of  two  layers  of  leather 
with  a  layer  of  cork  between,  held  to  the  foot  by  means  of  a 


Fig.  29.— Hats  and  caps. 


76 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


strap,  which  passed  between  the  great  toe  and  the  next,  and 
was  fastened  to  other  straps  running  along  the  foot  and  also 
down  to  the  heel.  The  straps  might  be  coloured,  particularly 
red,  and  an  ornamental  clasp  might  be  fixed  where  they  met  on 
the  instep.  Perhaps  we  may  remark  that  the  Greek  sandal 
and  slipper  were  favourite  instruments  of  domestic  corporal 
punishment,  whether  for  children,  slaves,  or  husbands. 

But  though  the  sandal  was  common  wear,  there  were  also 


Fig.  30.— Sandal  of  Hermes. 


worn  various  sorts  of  slippers,  shoes,  half-shoes,  and  boots. 
The  boots,  which  were  supple  and  graceful,  were  worn  in 
travelling,  running,  and  hunting ;  while  low  shoes,  black,  white, 
or  red,  were  often  used  in  town,  particularly  when  a  guest  was 
walking  to  a  visit,  and  particularly  to  a  dinner-party. 

It  may  be  observed  in  passing  that  shoes  were  the  one 
article  of  dress  in  which  Athenians  allowed  themselves  some- 
thing of  our  modern  taste  for  novelty  and  numerous  changes  of 
fashion.  If  a  dandy  desired  to  be  original  he  showed  it  in  his 
shoes,  not  in  his  waistcoats.  We  hear  of  a  number  of  shapes 
or  styles  called  after  the  names  of  persons.    Just  as  we  speak 


vi      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  77 


of  "Wellington"  boots  and  "  Blucher  "  boots  and  "  Gladstone  " 
bags,  so  the  Athenian  spoke  of  "  Alcibiades "  shoes  or 
"  Iphicrates  "  shoes.  But  there  is  the  difference  that  with  us 
the  names  are  given  by  the  manufacturers  in  questionable 
honour  of  the  person  named,  while  among  the  Athenians  the 
name  was  given  because  the  said  person  wore  and  set  the 
fashion  of  such  articles.  To  wear  nails  in  your  shoes  was 
commonly  the  mark  of  a  rustic,  although  even  a  great  dandy 
might  affect  such  things  in  gold  or  silver.  To  wear  mended  or 
patched  shoes  was,  according  to  Theophrastus,  not  good  form 
for  a  gentleman. 

If  your  shoes  were  not  red  or  white,  they  were  blacked  with 
a  gloss  put  on  with  a  sponge.    It  is  related  of  one  citizen  that 


"  one  of  his  friends  met  him,  and  when  he  saw  his  shoes  well 
blacked,  he  was  distressed  to  think  he  must  be  badly  off,  for  he 
concluded  that  his  shoes  would  never  have  been  so  well  blacked 
if  he  had  not  blacked  them  himself." 

Our  typical  citizen  will  certainly  wear  at  least  one  seal-ring, 
partly  for  ornament  and  partly  for  use ;  he  may  even  affect 
several  rings,  like  Aristotle,  who  possessed  the  profoundest 
brain  in  Greece,  but,  nevertheless,  had  a  pretty  taste  for  self- 
adornment.  But  he  must  be  careful  not  to  make  a  parade  of 
too  many.  They  must  not,  as  the  comedian  objects,  come  right 
clown  to  his  finger-nails.  He  will  also  usually  carry  a  walking- 
stick.  If  an  old  man,  his  stick  will  usually  have  a  curved  or 
bent  head,  something  like  a  shepherd's  crook.  These  sticks  were 
longer  than  ours  and  rather  suggest  those  now  used  as  wands  of 
office.  If  a  young  blood,  his  stick  will  be  straight,  with  a 
knob,  and  with  a  gold  or  silver  ring  or  spiral  round  it.  The 
professional  and  ostentatious  philosopher  will  carry  simply  a 


Fig.  31.— Boots  and  shoes. 


78  LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS  ohaf. 

stout  club,  to  match  his  short  cloak,  long  beard,  and  bare 
feet. 


It  has  taken  us  a  considerable  time  to  get  our  Athenian 
citizen — whom  we  shall  now  call  Pasicles  for  convenience  of 
reference — fully  dressed  and  out  of  doors.  But  by  this  time 
one  can  perhaps  see  him  in  his  habit  as  he  lived,  with  bare 


Fig.  32.— Men  with  sticks. 


head,  with  tunic  and  mantle  neatly  draped,  with  sandals  neatly 
bound  on  his  feet,  and  a  shapely  stick  in  his  hand. 

He  is  followed,  if  possible,  by  two  slaves,  who  are  to  be  his 
carriers  and  errand-bearers,  in  case  he  wishes  to  buy  anything, 
or  to  send  a  message  home  or  to  a  friend.  If  he  cannot  afford 
two,  he  will  at  least  have  one,  as  practically  indispensable  to  a 
gentleman.  Should  he  be  too  poor  even  for  one,  he  may  hire 
a  porter  in  the  market-place  for  a  special  errand. 

Thus  followed,  he  will  walk  easily  down  towards  the  Agora, 
and,  if  he  is  a  well-bred  man,  he  will  strike  the  happy  mean 
between  bustle  and  pomposity.  The  Athenians  were  very 
observant  in  such  matters.    They  hated  fuss  and  they  hated 


vi      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  79 


arrogance.  You  must  not  "  stalk,"  you  must  not  hurry  along, 
you  must  not  be  so  little-minded  as  to  be  rolling  your  eyes  all 
about  the  street.  On  the  other  hand,  you  must  not  look  glum, 
with  your  eyes  bent  upon  the  ground.  "Meidias,"  says 
Demosthenes,  "  stalks  through  the  market-place  with  three  or 
four  attendants,  talking  cups  and  goblets  so  that  the  passers- 
by  can  hear.  .  .  .  The  town  won't  hold  him."  "  To  walk  fast 
and  talk  loud  "  is  conspicuously  bad.  According  to  Aristotle, 
the  man  of  great  self-respect  has  a  "slow  movement,  deep  voice, 
and  composed  speech." 

As  Pasicles  is  moving  along,  he  perhaps  passes  a  friend  who 
is  riding  out  to  visit  his  farm  in  the  country,  or  to  exercise  a 
horse  by  jumping  a  few  obstacles.  Another  he  will  meet 
walking  to  a  visit.  Another  is  going  down  to  the  Peiraeus. 
In  such  cases  there  is  no  bowing  nor  hand-shaking.  To  the 
Athenian,  hand-shaking  meant  a  good  deal.  It  was  either  a 
solemn  pledge,  or,  joined  to  a  kiss  like  that  of  the  Frenchman, 
a  demonstrative  welcome  after  long  separation.  To  bowing 
the  free  citizen  strongly  objected  ;  it  was  an  act  of  obeisance 
and  worship,  and,  as  between  mere  mortals,  it  implied  a 
superiority  on  one  side  which  no  Athenian  would  acknowledge. 
The  orthodox  greeting  consisted  of  a  bright  look,  and  words 
which  we  may  fairly  translate  as  "  Good  day,"  or  "  Glad  to  see 
you,"  or  "  I  hope  you  are  well."  A  special  social  virtue  lay  in 
this  easy  courtesy. 

Passing  down  between  the  various  colonnades,  among  the 
statues  of  gods  and  famous  men,  and  under  the  plane-trees, 
Pasicles  reaches  the  part  of  the  Agora  which  is  set  apart  for 
trade.  Long  ago,  before  dawn,  the  countryman  has  brought  in 
his  supplies,  his  cartload  of  wine  or  vegetables,  and  left  them 
with  the  retail-dealers  at  their  stalls,  precisely  as  our  market- 
gardeners  come  in  to  our  own  markets.  Poor  women  have 
brought  in  the  yarn  they  have  spun,  or  the  flowers  which  they 
have  worked  into  garlands.  "My  husband  died,"  says  one, 
i£and  left  me  with  five  little  children,  which  I  could  hardly 
keep  by  plaiting  garlands  for  the  flower-market." 

The  various  commodities  for  sale  have  long  ago  been  set 
out  in  their  special  section  of  the  market-place.  The  buyer 
knows  exactly  where  to  go  to  find  bread  or  fish  or  green  cheese 
or  vegetables  or  oil,  or  to  hire  dancing-girls  or  a  cook.  Each 
kind  of  commodity  has  its  own  stand  or  "  ring,"  and,  if  you 


so 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


wished  to  make  an  appointment  in  the  market-place,  you  might 
tell  your  friend  to  meet  you  "at  the  fish"  or  "  at  the  green 
cheese  "  or  "  at  the  figs."  Here  were  stalls  or  booths,  almost 
precisely  as  you  may  see  them  any  day  in  many  modern 
markets.  Round  the  market-place  were  shops,  particularly  of 
barbers,  perfumers,  shoemakers,  saddlers,  wine-sellers  ;  and  in 
the  neighbourhood  were  the  colonnades  with  their  seats  and 
grateful  shade. 

Though  Athenian  ladies  who  can  afford  to  stay  at  home 
will  never  appear  in  the  market,  the  purchasing  being  done  by 
the  husband  or  the  slaves,  yet  poor  Athenian  women,  mostly 
elderly,  will  be  found  there  behind  the  stalls.  As  their  special 
departments,  they  dealt  chiefly  in  bread,  figs,  vegetables,  and 
flowers.  In  the  London  market  of  Billingsgate  it  is  the  fish- 
women  who  have  been  notorious  for  abusive  language  ;  at 
Athens  it  was  the  bread-women.  "We  need  not,"  argues  the 
comedian,  "revile  one  another  like  bread-women."  The 
mother  of  the  poet  Euripides  is  said  to  have  sold  vegetables. 
It  is  true  that  the  average  Athenian  despised  retail  selling ; 
nevertheless,  to  use  contemptuous  language  towards  man  or 
woman  for  trading  in  the  market  was  forbidden  by  law. 

Our  citizen  will  perhaps  pass  among  the  stalls  in  order  to  make 
some  purchase,  which  he  will  send  home  by  his  slave.  Around 
him  will  be  heard,  as  in  old  London,  the  cries  "  buy  vinegar," 
"buy  oil,"  "buy  charcoal,"  which  the  countryman  in  Aristophanes 
came  to  hate  so  much  that  he  wished  the  word  "  buy  "  had 
never  been  known.  But  chiefly  he  will  be  attracted  to  the  fish 
stalls.  The  Athenian  was  a  modest  eater,  and  his  weakness 
was  not  meat,  but  fish.  Of  all  dealers,  the  fishmongers  could 
afford  to  be  the  most  independent,  not  to  say  insolent.  One 
comedian  calls  them  "  assassins,"  another  "burglars."  Another 
describes  their  manner.  You  come  along  to  bargain  about 
fish — for  of  course  at  Athens  you  bargained  and  haggled 
overprices — and  the  fishmonger  "pretends  not  to  hear  you, 
gives  some  big  fish  a  slap,  and,  if  he  answers  you,  clips  his 
words,  and  snaps  out  '  'lev'npence.'  If  you  ask  him  '  How 
much  for  these  two  ! '  '  Half-crown  ! '  '  That's  heavy,  will 
you  take  two  shillings  1 '  '  Yes,  for  one  of  'em  ! '  '  My  good 
fellow,  take  two  shillings  and  stop  your  jokes.'  '  That's  my 
price,'  he  answers,  '  trot  along  with  you.' " 

To  enable  the  buyer  to  get  his  fish  fresh,  a  bell  was  rung 


vi      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  81 


when  the  new  catch  arrived  at  the  market.  And  thereby  hangs 
a  tale,  though  not  originally  told  of  Athens  itself.  A  musician 
was  giving  a  recital  on  the  harp  to  a  gathering  of  his  friends 
in  a  room  near  the  market,  when  suddenly  the  fish-bell  rang. 
Up  started  all  the  company  and  left  the  room,  except  one  rather 
deaf  old  man.  The  musician  came  to  him  and  said,  "  Thank 
you,  sir,  for  being  the  only  man  to  have  the  manners  to  stay 
when  the  fish-bell  rang."  "  What,"  said  the  solitary,  "  did  you 
say  it  was  the  fish-bell  ?  Thanks  !  Good-bye,"  and  off  he 
sped  after  the  others. 

The  market,  with  all  its  manifold  operations,  is  in  full  swing 
from  about  nine  o'clock  till  towards  noon.  What  we  should 
call  ten  o'clock  was  called  by  the  Athenians  "  full-market." 
About  noon  the  stalls  and  wickerwork  booths  are  cleared  away 
and  the  ordinary  business  part  of  the  day  is  done. 

But  during  those  business  hours  every  sociable  man  in 
Athens  will  spend  some  time  in  or  about  the  Agora.  He  must 
not,  it  is  true,  haunt  the  place,  or  he  will  be  called  an  "  agora- 
man,"  which  practically  means  a  loafer.  Our  typical  citizen  is 
of  course  sociable.  Moreover,  he  is  to  give  a  dinner-party  to- 
night, and  he  must  choose  the  fish,  and  hire  a  cook,  and  also 
girls  to  dance  and  play  the  flute.  For  ordinary  purposes  his 
own  plain  cooking  at  home  will  suffice,  but  for  a  special  occasion 
he  must  engage  one  of  those  professional  chefs  who  have  been 
trained,  or  who  profess  to  have  been  trained,  at  Sj^racuse  in 
Sicily,  where  they  understand  good  eating  and  drinking  far 
better  than  they  do  at  Athens.  The  situation  is  something 
like  that  when  in  modern  times  we  engage  caterers  and  special 
waiters.  At  Syracuse  the  dialect  of  Greek  is  Doric,  and  a  chef 
will  therefore  ape  the  Doric  in  naming  his  dishes,  very  much  as 
a  modern  chef  will  write  a  menu  in  which  his  concoctions  bear 
names  purporting  to  be  French. 

Then,  perhaps,  Pasicles  will  visit  his  banker.  This 
gentleman,  who  is  very  probably  an  Outlander,  will  be  seated 
in  a  special  portion  of  the  square  set  apart  for  him  and  his 
confreres,  and  there,  with  a  table  in  front  of  him,  he  will  be 
engaged  in  cashing  letters  of  credit  from  abroad,  after  he  has 
tested  the  tokens,  the  signatures,  and  the  marks  of  the  signet- 
rings  ;  or  he  will  be  changing  foreign  money  for  Attic  money, 
or  silver  for  copper,  at  a  small  commission  ;    or  he  will  be 

G 


82 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAT. 


adjusting  the  ledgers  as  between  two  customers  of  his  table. 
Meanwhile  "  the  man  of  paltry  ambitions "  will  be  standing 
about  this  quarter,  in  order  to  make  people  fancy  that  he  has 
large  dealings  with  the  banks.  This  method  of  banking  might 
seem  very  crude  and  rather  insecure ;  nevertheless  we  have  no 
reason  to  believe  that  it  was  unsafe  in  any  sense  of  the  word. 
In  speaking  of  money  matters  our  Athenian  will  not  ask  "  Who 
is  your  banker  ? "  but  "  Whose  table  do  you  use  ? "  and  the 
expression  is  literally  correct.  A  "banker"  is  a  "table- 
man." 

By  this  time — perhaps  between  ten  and  eleven — our  friend 
Pasicles  has  finished  his  purchases  and  other  business,  and 
either  takes  a  turn  in  the  neighbouring  colonnades,  or  else  goes 
and  sits  in  a  shop  where  he  knows  that  he  can  meet  his  friends 
and  discuss  either  the  news  of  the  day,  politics,  or  abstract  ques- 
tions mooted  by  persons  philosophically  inclined.  Particularly 
affected  for  this  purpose  were  the  shops  of  the  barbers,  the  chemists 
(or  "perfumers"),  and  the  doctors'  waiting-rooms,  although 
a  shoemaker's  was  not  a  bad  place,  and  on  one  occasion  Socrates 
drops  into  a  saddler's  to  provoke  a  little  discussion.  The 
shopkeeper  had  no  objection  whatever  to  thus  turning  his  shop 
into  a  sort  of  clubroom ;  it  was  part  of  the  business,  and  he 
enjoyed  the  talk  as  much  as  any  one.  So  regular  was  this 
habit  of  dropping  into  a  shop  that  in  a  speech  of  Demosthenes 
we  find  a  complaint  against  a  certain  person  as  being 
"  unsociable ;  he  never  visits  any  of  the  barbers'  shops  or 
perfumers'  or  the  like."  The  barbers  then,  as  until  quite 
recently,  were  especially  garrulous  persons.  "  How  will  you 
have  your  hair  cut  ? "  said  the  barber  to  King  Archelaus  of 
Macedonia  at  the  time  we  are  discussing.  "In  silence," 
replied  Archelaus.  Aristophanes  observes  somewhere  that 
"  there  was  much  talk  in  the  barbers'  shops  "  to  such  and  such 
an  effect,  and  elsewhere  he  uses  the  phrase  "  when  the  fathers 
tell  the  boys  in  the  barbers'  shops." 

The  barber's  business  was  to  trim  the  hair  and  beard,  to 
perform  a  complete  manicure,  and  in  general  to  make  the 
customer  presentable.  He  tucked  a  towel  round  you,  snapped 
his  shears  rhythmically,  trimmed  your  hair,  let  you  look  at 
yourself  in  a  bronze  mirror,  and  then  attended  to  your  nails. 
Athenian  taste  was  particularly  exacting  in  the  matter  of  the 


vi      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  TILL  DINNER)  83 


hair  and  hands.  In  the  early  part  of  our  classical  period  it 
was  usual  to  grow  both  the  hair  and  the  beard  of  medium 
length.  Long  ringlets  like  those  of  the  English  Cavaliers  were 
affected  only  by  boys  and  by  the  young  bloods  who  formed  the 
cavalry  of  Athens,  and  to  wear  long  hair  was  so  much  a  mark 
of  rather  assertive  dandyism  that  the  expression  "  What  are 
you  long-haired  for  ? "  became  practically  equivalent  to  our 
expression  "  What  are  you  putting  on  airs  for  ?  "  On  the  other 
hand,  closely  cropped  hair  was  accounted  more  fit  for  a  slave 


than  for  a  free  man.  It  generally  marked  the  professional 
athlete,  or  the  Stoic  or  Cynic  philosopher,  whose  main  concern 
was  to  flout  fashion.  What  the  Athenians  considered  the 
happy  mean  will  at  once  appear  from  the  accompanying 
illustrations.  A  long  and  untrimmed  beard  was  another  mark 
of  the  professional  philosopher. 

Shaving  was  very  rare  in  the  early  part  of  our  period, 
but  towards  the  end  of  it  the  Macedonian  practice  of  shaving 
the  face  clean  came  into  much  vogue.  But  whatever  else  he 
might  do,  no  Greek  ever  wore  a  moustache  only.  He  might 
let  his  beard  grow  long,  or  he  might  trim  it,  or  he  might  shave 


84 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


his  face  clean,  but  it  would  only  be  a  barbarian — a  Gaul  for 
example — who  would  shave  off  the  rest  and  keep  the  moustache. 
The  razor  employed  was  shaped  like  a  small  sickle  or  half-moon, 
and  one  may  doubt  if  the  operation  was  very  comfortable. 
The  patient  was  apparently  expected  to  assist.  In  a  scene  of 
Aristophanes  the  poet  Euripides  is  made  to  say,  "  Agathon,  you 
always  carry  a  razor ;  lend  me  one."  Replies  Agathon,  "  Take 
it  out  of  the  case  yourself."  Whereupon  Euripides  proceeds, 
"  You're  a  gentleman.  Now  then  (to  his  kinsman),  sit  down 
and  puff  out  your  right  cheek." 

Our  citizen  Pasicles  may  thus  drop  into  various  shops,  but 
into  one  sort  he  must  not  be  seen  to  go.    These  are  the  retail 

wine  -  shops,  which  corre- 
spond to  the  low  public- 
houses  of  modern  times.  To 
sit  in  such  a  place,  and  there 
eat  and  drink,  was  not  fit 
conduct  even  for  a  respect- 
able slave.  The  thing  was 
done  nevertheless.  Diogenes, 
it  is  reported,  once  caught 
sight  of  Demosthenes  in  such 
a  place.  Demosthenes  was 
of  course  much  alarmed,  and 
Fig.  34.— Razor  tried  to  draw  back  out  of 

sight,  but  Diogenes  humor- 
ously cried,  "  You  had  better  come  out,  Demosthenes  ;  the  more 
you  draw  back,  the  more  you  will  be  inside  the  shop." 

Having  nothing  to  say  to  such  low  haunts,  Pasicles  turns  to 
go  home  for  his  luncheon.  You  may  wonder  how  he  knows 
what  time  it  is,  seeing  that  clocks  and  watches  were  not  yet 
invented.  Well,  to  begin  with,  the  Athenians  were  not 
particular  to  a  few  minutes.  There  was  none  of  the  modern 
hurry  and  rush  of  life.  There  were  no  trains  to  catch,  and  in 
all  engagements  there  was  necessarily  a  certain  amount  of 
margin  of  punctuality.  In  the  next  place,  they  were  far  more 
accustomed  than  we  are  to  watch  the  sun,  and  in  a  rough  and 
ready  manner  to  gauge  his  progress  across  the  sky.  In  the 
third  place,  for  greater  precision,  they  possessed  for  common 
use  a  fairly  practical  form  of  public  sundial.    This  consisted  of 


VI      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  85 


a  vertical  staff,  which  threw  a  shadow  upon  a  marked  floor,  and 
the  time  was  denominated  by  the  length  of  the  shadow,  recorded 
in  feet.  Thus  a  guest  was  invited  to  come  to  dinner  when  the 
shadow  was  "ten  feet"  or  "twelve  feet,"  as  the  case  might  be. 
It  is  recorded  of  one  hungry  and  greedy  person  that,  when 
invited  for  the  hour  of  a  twelve-foot  shadow — which  means  the 
evening  shadow — he  measured  it  in  the  early  morning  and 
came  soon  after  daybreak.  Another  comedian  improves  upon 
this  and  avers  that  he  measured  it  by  moonlight,  and  so  came 
in  the  night  of  the  day  before  he  was  due.  There  had  been 
invented  also  a  really  scientific  sundial,  but  this  was  little  used. 
In  the  better  houses  there  was  often  a  sort  of  giant  hour-glass, 
through  which,  however,  there  ran  water  and  not  sand,  and 
the  progress  of  the  day  was  estimated  by  the  quantity  of  water 
which  had  run  through.  In  any  case,  we  find  no  indication 
that  the  Athenians  were  in  any  great  degree  inconvenienced  by 
their  rough  horological  equipment. 

As  Pasicles  is  walking  homewards,  followed  of  course  by 
his  attendant,  he  catches  sight  in  the  distance  of  an  acquaint- 
ance whom  he  has  not  lately  seen.  You  will  remember  that 
he  is  giving  a  dinner-party  to-night.  He  therefore  orders  the 
slave  to  run  on,  overtake  the  friend,  and  say  to  him  that 
Pasicles  invites  him  to  dinner  this  evening  when  the  shadow  is 
twelve  feet.  There  is  nothing  unusual  in  this  short  notice,  nor 
in  the  manner  of  delivering  it.  Invitations  were  usually  not 
written  notes ;  they  were  regularly  delivered  either  on  a 
chance  meeting  or  else  by  a  slave  sent  for  the  purpose.  There 
was  no  formality  or  touchiness  about  Athenian  social  inter- 
course. 

On  arriving  at  his  house  our  citizen  will  take  his  dejeuner — 
a  substantial,  but  not  elaborate  or  protracted  meal — generally 
under  the  covered  portico  or  verandah  of  the  courtyard,  and  in 
the  company  of  his  family.  Then  he  will  rest  awhile  through 
the  noonday  heat,  and  perhaps  read  ;  but  he  will  not,  like  the 
Romans,  take  a  siesta  in  the  form  of  sleep.  Sleep,  indeed, 
plays  a  very  small  part  in  the  catalogue  of  Athenian  enjoy- 
ments or  needs. 

Feeling  refreshed  and  vigorous,  Pasicles  sets  out  in  the 
afternoon  to  walk  to  one  of  the  three  great  public  gymnasia  in 
the  suburbs  of  Athens — the  Lyceum  or  Cynosarges  or  the 
Academy.    Mostly  he  will  find  company  on  the  way,  inasmuch 


86  LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS  chap. 

as  there  is  a  usual  and  understood  hour  for  his  friends  to  be 
making  in  the  same  direction. 

The  gymnasia  were  institutions  extremely  characteristic  of 
Greek  life  in  general,  and  especially  of  the  life  of  Athens. 


Fm.  35. — Man  reading  :  tombstone. 


Primarily  they  were  intended  for  that  bodily  training  upon 
which  all  Greeks  set  such  immense  store.  With  this  training 
and  its  effects  we  have  to  deal  later,  when  we  speak  of  education. 
The  gymnasia  were  entered  only  by  men  over  eighteen,  and 


vi      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  87 


those  men  must  not  be  slaves.  Persons  of  doubtful  citizenship 
had  access  to  that  of  Cynosarges  alone.  Here  were  grounds 
partly  planted,  but  embracing  open  spaces  for  running,  wrest- 
ling, boxing,  spear-throwing,  discus-throwing,  and  leaping,  the 
whole  surrounded  by  terraces,  colonnades,  and  rooms  for 
punching  the  sack,  dressing,  anointing,  and  bathing,  while 
statues  of  gods,  heroes,  victors,  and  famous  men  in  general  were 
dotted  about.  While  the  younger  men  are  engaging  with  all 
vigour  and  emulation  in  these  various  sports,  the  older  men 
may  be  taking  the  same  exercise  in  milder  forms,  or  indulging 
in  various  games  of  ball-play,  somewhat  as  elderly  men  may  be 
seen  nowadays  at  tennis  in  the  late  afternoon.  It  must  be 
premised,  however,  that  the  elderly  Athenian  was  very  careful 
not  to  render  himself  ridiculous,  or,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  cut  a 
poor  figure,"  by  competing  with  the  younger  performers  on 
their  own  ground.  It  was  not  necessary  that  he  should  take 
any  part  at  all.  From  the  terraces  and  colonnades  round  the 
enclosure  he  could  look  down  at  the  sport  and  give  his  applause 
or  make  his  comments,  probably  telling  stories  about  the  more 
excellent  performers  in  the  good  old  days  when  he  was  young. 
Or,  again,  he  might  just  as  frequently  ignore  the  entire  proceed- 
ings, and  devote  himself  to  discussion,  either  of  the  news  or  of 
abstract  and  philosophic  subjects,  while  he  sat  on  the  stone 
benches  in  the  porticoes  or  walked  up  and  down  along  the 
terraces.  Here  you  might  see  a  citizen  drawing  a  diagram  in 
the  sand  with  his  stick  and  explaining  to  a  company  round 
him  the  geographical  situation  of  some  campaign  or  a  problem 
in  mensuration.  In  another  place  a  humorously  ugly  snub- 
nosed  individual  is  the  centre  of  a  knot  of  persons  arguing  as 
to  whether  it  is  better  to  be  a  liar  and  not  know  it  or  to  be  a 
liar  deliberately.  That  is  Socrates.  At  a  later  date,  in  the 
Academy,  a  broad-shouldered  but  stooping  citizen  of  highly 
intellectual  and  superior  appearance  may  be  developing  rather 
transcendental  doctrines  in  beautiful  Greek  to  a  circle  of 
young  and  old  admirers  and  non-admirers.  That  is  Plato.  In 
the  Lyceum,  at  a  still  later  day,  on  the  terrace  called  "  The 
Walk,"  an  individual  with  a  capacious  skull  and  a  distinct 
fancy  for  personal  adornment  may  be  working  solidly  down, 
in  language  not  ornate,  but  effective,  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  politics,  ethics,  poetry,  or  logic.  That  is  Aristotle, 
the  more  human  and  interesting  Herbert  Spencer  of  ancient 


ss 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Athens.  All  these  are  types  of  our  chosen  classical  epoch,  and 
they  do  not  stand  alone.  There  are  plenty  of  arguers  and  abun- 
dance of  argumentation  ;  there  are  jests  and  sarcasms  ;  there 
is  story-telling  and  the  whole  range  of  sociable  conversation. 
Games  which  are  varieties  of  what  we  might  call  chess,  draughts, 
or  backgammon  are  indulged  in  by  those  who  are  so  disposed. 
The  whole  place  and  its  conduct  are  under  the  control  of  a 
special  magistrate,  who  can  eject  disorderly  persons  and  bad 
influences — including,  it  is  gratifying  to  learn,  the  more  truculent 
sophists. 

In  such  surroundings  Pasicles  spends  a  couple  of  hours. 
He  has  perhaps  sufficiently  exercised  both  his  mind  and  body, 
and  is  now  disposed  for  his  bath.  Or  he  may  postpone  the 
bath  for  a  while  and  take  a  walk  in  the  avenue  of  the  Agora. 
But  the  bath  is  indispensable,  at  least  before  a  dinner-party. 
Many  have  seen  the  remains  of  the  baths  of  Caracalla  at  Rome, 
or  have  read  descriptions  of  the  palatial  establishments  of  that 
day,  when  every  conceivable  kind  of  hot,  cold,  vapour,  and 
other  bath  was  provided  without  stint.  But  one  must  not 
think  of  such  establishments  as  existing  in  classical  Athens. 
There  we  should  find  but  a  very  modest  equipment.  Frequent 
bathing  in  hot  water  was  regarded  by  the  Athenians  as 
effeminate,  although  neither  the  Romans  nor  the  Japanese  have 
found  it  so.  There  were,  of  course,  hot  baths,  and  even  a  sort 
of  Turkish  bath  was  not  unknown,  but  for  the  most  part  the 
bath-houses  were  for  cold  bathing,  and  not  very  elaborate 
either.  When  we  say  "  bath-houses "  it  is  not  implied  that 
there  were  no  baths  in  private  houses.  Every  better  house  had 
something  of  the  sort ;  but  the  bath-houses  referred  to  were 
either  provided  by  the  state  and  entered  on  payment  of  a  small 
fee,  or  were  supplied  by  private  enterprise.  There  were  public 
baths  at  or  near  the  gymnasia,  but  there  must  have  been  others 
in  the  city. 

We  should  ourselves  hardly  consider  the  system  of  bathing 
satisfactory.  There  is  mention,  it  is  true,  of  a  swimming-bath  ; 
and  there  were  certainly — as  we  see  from  pictures  on  the  vases 
— shower-baths,  in  the  sense  that  you  could  stand  under  a 
stream  of  water  gushing  from  a  spout.  But  for  the  most  part 
vou  washed  piecemeal  from  a  large  vessel,  placed  upon  a  stand, 
the  whole  nearly  resembling  a  baptismal  font  in  a  church. 
Then  the  bathman  and  his  assistants  came  round  and  poured 


vi      SOCIAL  DAY  OF  A  TYPICAL  CITIZEN  (TILL  DINNER)  89 


water  over  you  from  a  bronze  or  earthenware  vessel,  which  was 
too  shapely  to  be  called  a  bucket,  but  which  performed  the 
same  duty.  Some  persons  did  the  pouring  for  themselves,  but 
this  seems  to  have  been  in  order  to  escape  paying  a  small  fee, 
and  was  considered  mean.  In  the  meantime  it  was  just  as  well 
to  watch  your  clothes,  for  the  baths  were  a  favourite  field  for 
the  thieves  who  were  known  as  "  cloak-strippers."  And,  by 
the  way,  you  must  not  sing  in  the  bath.  Only  boors  did  that. 
A  sort  of  soap,  in  the  shape  of  fuller's  earth,  or  of  other 
preparations  from  wood -ashes  and  special  clay,  might  be 
supplied  by  the  bathman ;  but  it  was  better  to  send  your 
slave  along  with  your  own  perfumed  supply,  as  well  as  with 


Fig.  36. —Youths  bathing. 


your  oil-flask  and  your  scraper.  For  these  were  necessary. 
After  he  has  rubbed  off  the  moisture,  Pasicles  will  proceed  to 
anoint  himself  with  olive-oil  mixed  with  perfume,  and  then  he 
will  take  a  curved  and  hollowed  instrument  of  bronze,  made  for 
the  purpose,  and  will  scrape  himself  with  great  conscientiousness 
and  care.  Those  who  have  seen  the  famous  statue  of  the 
Apoxyomenos  will  at  once  understand  the  process. 

After  this  our  citizen  dresses,  perhaps  chats  awhile,  and 
departs,  much  to  the  disappointment  of  a  casual  acquaintance, 
who  has  been  hanging  about  the  bath-house  on  the  chance  of 
getting  an  invitation  to  dinner  at  the  last  moment.  Meanwhile 
the  bathman,  like  the  barber,  is  a  great  newsmonger  and  busy- 
body, and  knows  and  tells  more  about  Pasicles  than  Pasicles 
ever  knew  about  himself. 


CHAPTER  VII 


CITIZEN'S  SOCIAL  DAY  :    DINNER,  ETC. 

Pasicles  has  again  reached  home,  where  he  finds  everything 
in  readiness  for  the  dinner.  The  slaves  are  neatly  dressed  and 
understand  their  business,  the  vessels  are  all  well  polished,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  the  guests  will  arrive. 

Had  this  been  a  specially  quiet  day,  our  citizen  would  have 
dined  with  no  one  about  him  except  his  family  and  perhaps  a 
chance  friend.  In  that  case  he  would  himself  have  reclined  on 
the  couch,  of  which  we  shall  speak  immediately,  while  his  wife 
would  have  been  seated  in  a  chair ;  the  children  would  have 
come  in  for  dessert  and  have  disposed  themselves  on  seats,  or 
stood  up,  or  clambered  on  the  couch  or  on  the  mother's  lap, 
according  to  their  age  and  the  manners  and  affection  of  the 
family.  Of  this  family  meal  we  have  a  rough  illustration  taken 
from  a  relief  on  a  tomb.  On  the  left  is  an  attendant :  on  the 
right  a  descendant :  the  relief  is  connected  with  the  family 
worship. 

To-day  the  wife  will  not  appear,  but  will  keep  herself  and 
the  children  in  the  women's  quarters.  The  company  will  consist 
of  men,  and  their  conversation,  if  philosophic,  would  be  above 
the  women's  comprehension,  or,  if  not  philosophic,  it  would 
cause  the  women  no  edification.  The  dinner  is  not  to  be  a 
ceremony;  it  is  to  be  a  social  enjoyment;  and  the  full  play 
of  wit,  wisdom,  jest,  anecdote,  and  appetite  can  be  more 
harmlessly  indulged  when  free  from  the  restraint  of  female 
presence.  And  by  this  it  is  in  no  sense  implied  that  there 
was  necessarily  anything  which  we  need  severely  reprobate  at 
a  dinner-party  of  well-bred  Athenian  men. 

The  Athenians  loved  company  at  their  meals,  as  at  every  - 

90 

\ 


chap,  vii       CITIZEN'S  SOCIAL  DAY  :  DINNER,  ETC. 


91 


thing  else.  To  eat  your  dinner  alone  was,  according  to 
Plutarch,  "  not  dining,  but  feeding."  Any  special  occasion 
was  an  excuse  for  a  banquet.  It  might  be  a  birthday,  the 
arrival  or  departure  of  a  friend,  the  naming  of  a  child,  any 
important  domestic  event,  or  no  event  at  all.  And  be  it  said, 
to  their  credit,  that  the  actual  consuming  of  food  had  compara- 
tively little  to  do  with  the  matter.    There  were  doubtless  some 


Fig.  37.— Family  meal. 


Athenians  who  liked  good  living  for  its  own  sake ;  there  were 
doubtless  even  some  gluttons ;  but  the  Athenians  in  general 
are  not  to  be  confused  with  the  grosser  feeders  of  Boeotia  or 
the  epicures  of  Corinth.  One  comedian  remarks  that  an  Attic 
dinner  was  very  pretty  to  look  at,  but  gave  little  satisfaction 
to  the  hungry  interior.  Both  Plato  and  Xenophon  wrote  an 
essay  in  dialogue  dealing  with  a  dinner-party,  and  neither  of 
them  makes  any  mention  of  the  food.  A  special  abhorrence 
of  the  Athenian  was  "  swinishness."  The  classical  Attic  ideal 
demanded  enough  well-served   food  to  satisfy  a  reasonable 


92 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


appetite  while  pleasing  the  palate,  but,  first  and  foremost, 
lively  society,  conversation,  and  mutual  entertainment. 
Different  houses,  different  sorts  of  conversation  ;  but  always 
lively  mutual  entertainment. 

As  the  guests  arrive,  the  host  simply  greets  them  with  a 
bright  word  and  welcome  look.  In  the  large  dining-room  are 
placed  the  couches  upon  which  the  diners  will  recline  at  the 
meal.  These  are  of  some  height  from  the  ground,  with  frames 
of  ornamental  and  inlaid  woodwork  and  feet  of  ivory,  or  some- 
times of  silver ;  on  them  are  coloured  mattresses  and  cushions. 
The  ordinary  couch  will  accommodate  two  guests,  or,  in  case  of 
unexpected  arrivals,  three.  And,  speaking  of  unexpected  arrivals, 
we  must  here  remark  that  it  was  nothing  exceptional  for  a 
guest  who  was  an  intimate  friend  of  the  house  to  bring  along 
a  companion  who  had  not  received  an  invitation.  This  could 
not,  of  course,  be  done  in  modern  times,  when  we  sit  on  just 
so  many  chairs  at  a  table  of  such  and  such  a  size.  But  in 
Athens  there  was  no  long  table  to  sit  at,  more  room  could 
easily  be  extemporised,  there  was  no  individual  supply  of 
knives  and  forks,  and  the  quantity  of  food,  as  has  been  said, 
counted  for  little  in  the  affair.  Accordingly,  if  A  thought  that 
B,  the  uninvited,  would  be  a  welcome  addition  to  the  company, 
he  brought  B  along  with  him.  But  be  it  remembered  that  the 
Athenians  were  gifted  with  all  due  social  tact,  and  would  use 
every  discretion  in  such  a  practice.  Sometimes,  of  course,  the 
privilege  was  abused,  and  when  a  fashion  grew  up  of  the  richer 
men  attaching  to  themselves  a  sort  of  professional  male 
companion — a  "  shadow  "  or  "  parasite"  as  he  was  called,  when 
he  was  not  called  a  toady — it  became  an  expected  thing  that 
the  shadow  should  accompany  his  chief  to  dinner,  on  the 
understanding  that  he  might  be  more  casually  treated,  and 
made  the  butt  of  much  banter  to  which  the  invited  guests 
would  themselves  object.  But  this  fashion  hardly  belongs  to 
our  classical  period. 

In  the  Banquet  of  Plato  we  find  this  passage  :  "  Aristodemus 
said  that  he  met  Socrates  fresh  from  the  bath  and  wearing  low 
shoes,  and,  as  the  sight  of  the  low  shoes  was  unusual,  he  asked 
whither  he  was  going  so  finely  dressed.  '  To  a  banquet  at 
Agathon's,'  he  replied ;  '  and  I  have  put  on  finery  because  he 
is  a  fine  man.  What  say  you  to  going  with  me  uninvited?' 
'  Yes,'  said  Aristodemus,  '  I  will  go  with  you,  if  you  like.' 


VII 


CITIZEN'S  SOCIAL  DAY  :  DINNER,  ETC. 


On  the  way  Socrates  gets'  lost  in  a  fit  of  abstraction,  and 
Aristodemus  actually  goes  in  alone.  He  found  the  doors  wide 
open,  and  was  promptly  led  by  a  slave  into  the  dining-room. 
Here  the  host  met  him  and  said  :  '  Welcome,  Aristodemus  ; 
you  are  just  in  time  to  dine  with  us ;  if  you  have  come  on  any 
other  business,  put  that  off  and  make  one  of  us,  as  I  was  look- 
ing for  you  yesterday  and  meant  to  have  asked  you,  if  I  could 
find  you.' "  We  may  suspect  that  this  was  a  white  social  fib, 
but  it  at  any  rate  illustrates  the  easy  courtesy  and  hospitality 
of  such  occasions. 

The  guests  having  arrived,  they  first  sit  on  the  side  of  the 


Fig.  38.—  Men  reclining  at  banquet. 


couches ;  the  slaves  remove  the  sandals  or  slippers,  and  pour 
over  their  feet  water,  which  was  often  scented,  or  else  water 
and  wine — for  wine  was  very  cheap.  Then  they  proceed  to 
recline  on  their  left  side,  supported  on  their  left  elbow  against 
the  cushions.  The  position,  therefore,  is  something  between 
sitting  and  lying.  If  it  is  reasonably  warm  weather,  the 
mantle  is  dropped  from  the  shoulder  to  the  waist,  and  the 
pictures  show  us  that  it  was  thus  customary  for  men  to  dine 
extremely  decolletes.  It  was  meanwhile  a  point  of  good  table 
manners  to  adopt  the  reclining  position  with  ease  and  grace. 
In  Aristophanes  the  son  is  teaching  the  father  how  to  be  a  man 
of  the  world.  He  says,  "  Come  and  lie  down."  "  How  ?  "  asks 
the  old  man.  "  Gracefully."  "Like  this?"  "Nothing  of 
the  sort."    "  How  then  ?  "    "  Stretch  out  your  knees  and  shed 


94 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


yourself  in  an  easy  and  supple  way  among  the  cushions.  Then 
praise  some  article  among  the  bronze-ware.  Gaze  at  the 
patterns  on  the  ceiling  and  admire  the  curtains  of  the  court- 
yard." This  therefore  was  etiquette,  but  it  was  only  a  toady 
who  would  keep  taking  up  things  and  saying  "  How  beautiful 
this  is  ! " 

When  all  are  in  place,  the  servants  come  round  with  a 
vessel,  from  which  they  pour  water  over  the  hands  of  the 
guests.  There  are  brought  in  small  tables,  light  and  orna- 
mental, one  of  which  is  set  down  before  each  couch  for  two 
persons,  and  on  these  are  placed  the  several  dishes  as  they  come 
in  order.  The  tables  are  lower  than  the  couches,  so  that  the 
right  hand  can  reach  down  easily  to  them.  Knives  and  forks 
there  are  none ;  the  food  is  taken  up  in  the  fingers.  It  is  true 
that,  in  dealing  with  very  soft  foods  or  gravies,  or  in  extracting 
things  from  shells,  spoons  were  not  unknown,  but  usually  the 
fingers  were  assisted  simply  by  pieces  of  bread  hollowed  out 
for  the  purpose.  It  is  clear  that  there  was  plenty  of  room  for 
neatness  and  daintiness  in  handling  food,  and  it  was  no  small 
advantage  to  have  fingers  not  too  sensitive.  This  manner  of 
eating  will  explain  the  remark  in  a  comedian  that  if  your  "man 
who  likes  simple  fare  "  can  only  get  at  certain  luxuries,  "  may 
I  be  hanged  if  he  will  not  swallow  his  very  fingers."  There 
were  no  napkins.  Portions  of  soft  bread,  often  specially 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  were  used  for  wiping  the  fingers,  and 
were  afterwards  thrown  to  the  dogs  which  might  be  present 
to  catch  them.  But,  apart  from  the  dogs,  it  may  be  something 
of  a  shock  to  learn  that  the  floor — which  was,  of  course,  with- 
out a  carpet — was  the  receptacle  for  shells,  bones,  peelings, 
and  other  fragments,  which  were,  however,  swept  out  at  a 
given  stage  of  the  proceedings.  Conversation,  meanwhile, 
must  be  general. 

The  first  half  of  dinner  consists  of  substantiate,  particularly 
fish  and  birds,  eels,  if  they  could  be  got,  comparatively  little 
meat  (such  as  beef,  lamb,  and  pork),  and  vegetables  dressed  to 
a  degree  of  which  we  should  hardly  approve  with  oil,  vinegar, 
honey,  and  sauces.  During  this  part  of  the  meal  wine  is  not 
drunk.  The  Athenians  kept  their  drinking  as  separate  as 
possible  from  their  eating. 

Water  is  then  brought  round  again,  hands  are  washed,  the 
tables  are  carried  out,  the  floor  is  swept,  a  chant  is  sung  to  the 


VII 


CITIZEN'S  SOCIAL  DAY  :   DINNER,  ETC 


95 


accompaniment  of  the  flutes,  a  libation  of  wine  is  poured  out 
to  the  words  "  to  the  good  genius,"  or  "  to  good  health,"  and 
the  second  part  of  the  banquet  begins.  The  tables  are  brought 
in  again,  and  what  we  call  dessert  was  for  this  reason  called  by 
the  Athenians  "the  second  tables."  On  these  are  placed  fruits, 
fresh  and  dried,  salted  almonds,  sweetmeats,  cheese,  and  salt. 
"Attic  salt,"  and  to  "eat  a  man's  salt,"  are  still  proverbs  among 
us  derived  from  the  Greeks. 

The  previous  part  of  the  banquet  has  been  the  dinner  proper, 
and  now  begins  what  was  known  as  the  symposium,  or  the 
"drinking  together."  But  it  was  by  no  means  mere  drinking; 
it  was  conversation,  singing,  jests,  stories,  listening  to  music, 
and  watching  dancing.  On  how  high  a  level  conversation  might 
proceed,  and  theoretically  should  proceed,  is  shown  to  us  by 
the  dialogue-essays  of  Plato,  Xenophon,  and  their  imitator 
Plutarch,  each  entitled  "  Symposium  " — the  source  whence  we 
derive  the  meaning  of  the  word  as  commonly  used  among 
ourselves. 

The  first  thing  to  do  was  to  pour  a  libation — which  corresponds 
somewhat  to  our  modern  saying  of  grace — and  then  to  elect  a 
"ruler"  or  "king"  of  the  drinking.  On  him  depended  how 
much  wine  should  be  drunk,  and  of  what  strength  it  should  be. 
And  here  let  us  say  that,  theoretically  at  least,  moderation  was 
a  law  of  Attic  life ;  and  let  us  repeat  that  no  tea  or  coffee  was 
known,  nor  any  other  drinks  except  water  and  wine.  Drunken- 
ness was  no  more  approved  of  among  the  Athenians  than  it  is 
among  ourselves.  The  only  time  at  which  it  was  right  and 
proper  was  at  the  festivals  of  the  god  of  the  vintage.  Other- 
wise it  was  probably  just  about  as  common  as  it  was  a  genera- 
tion or  two  ago.  To  drink  neat  wine  was  regarded  as  barbarous. 
The  rather  thick  wines  of  Greece,  such  as  the  Chian  and  the 
Lesbian,  were  always  mixed  with  water,  either  in  the  proportion 
of  two  of  water  to  one  of  wine,  or  three  of  water  to  two  of 
wine.  Three  to  one  was  regarded  as  too  weak,  and  a  "  drink 
for  frogs."  At  a  symposium  one  no  more  thought  of  drinking 
neat  wine  than  we  think  of  drinking  neat  whisky.  In  the 
classical  period  they  preferred  rather  sweet  wine,  whether  red, 
white,  or  yellow,  with  a  dash  of  some  essence  to  give  it  a 
bouquet.  In  summer  the  wine  was  cooled  by  snow,  which  had 
been  collected  from  the  mountains,  and  was  preserved  by 


96 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


wrapping  it  in  cloths  and  chaff.  And  this  provokes  an  anecdote. 
The  Greek  word  for  dull,  tedious,  or  monotonous,  is  "  cold  "  or 
"  frigid."  When  Diphilus,  the  dramatic  poet,  was  dining  with 
a  certain  lady,  he  asked  her  how  she  managed  to  keep  her  wine 
so  deliciously  cold,  and  she  sweetly  replied,  "  I  put  one  of  your 
prologues  into  it."     Age  was,  as  now,  a  virtue  in  wine. 


Wine  jag. 


Mixing  vessels. 


Fir;.  39.— Vessels  for  feasts. 

Another  witty  lady,  when  presented  with  a  small  demijohn  of 
wine,  of  which  it  was  remarked  that  it  was  sixteen  years  old, 
replied,  "It  is  very  little  for  its  age."  That  joke,  we  perceive, 
is  somew7hat  old. 

At  our  banquet  the  slaves  proceed  to  mix,  in  a  large  and 
handsome  vessel,  the  wine  and  water  in  due  proportions ;  they 
then  draw  it  out  in  equally  handsome  ladles  or  jugs,  carry  these 
to  the  guests,  and  fill  their  no  less  handsome  cups  or  goblets. 

And  here  we  may  leave  the  drinking,  with  a  repetition  of 


VII 


CITIZEN'S  SOCIAL  DAY  :  DINNER,  ETC. 


97 


the  remark  that  a  typical  Athenian  like  Pasicles  believed  in 
moderation,  in  the  amount  which  was  cheering  but  not  inebri- 
ating. Says  one  comedian,  "  The  first  cup  means  health,  the 
second  pleasure,  the  third  is  for  sleep,  and  then  wise  man  go 
home.  The  fourth  means  rudeness,  the  fifth  shouting,  the  sixth 
disorder  in  the  streets,  the  seventh  black  eyes,  and  the  eighth 
a  summons."  Says  Aristophanes,  "  Drinking  is  bad  ;  for  wine 
means  banging  at  doors,  hitting  people  and  having  to  pay  for 
it,  and  a  headache  into  the  bargain."  And  another,  more  to 
our  purpose,  observes,  "  This  is  the  Greek  way  of  drinking,  to 
use  moderate-sized  cups,  and  chat,  and  talk  pleasant  nonsense 
to  one  another  :  the  other  course  is  swilling,  not  drinking,  and 
it  is  deadly." 

We  need  not  pretend  that  there  was  not  intoxication,  and  a 
great  deal  too  much  of  it,  but  it  mostly  belonged  to  the  younger 


men,  and  to  a  less  orderly  gathering  than  ours.  There  they 
drank  healths  and  toasted  ladies  with  a  fine  recklessness.  Yet 
even  the  rakes  hardly  liked  to  say  that  a  friend  was  "  drunk." 
They  said  he  was  "  wet,"  or  "  dipped,"  or  "  chest-protected." 

Anything  one  may  have  read  concerning  expensive  shows 
and  elaborate  entertainments  after  dinner  has  very  little  refer- 
ence to  this  classical  period.  Generally  flute-girls  came  in  and 
played  (Fig.  38) ;  dancing-girls  danced  with  much  grace  and 
expression ;  possibly  a  professional  tumbler,  man  or  woman, 
might  perform  such  feats  as  dancing  among  swords  ;  but  often 
all  these  entertainments  were  discarded  for  conversation  pure 
and  simple.  In  the  older  days  it  was  the  fashion  for  a  lyre 
to  be  passed  along  the  company,  each  one  who  received  it 
being  expected  to  sing  a  catch  of  a  certain  type,  and  riddles 
were  propounded  to  which  ridiculous  forfeits  and  prizes  were 
attached;  but  these  had  become  old-fashioned  during  our 
period.    If  you  now  sang  at  all,  you  were  expected  to  sing 


Fig.  40.— Drinking-cup. 


H 


98 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


something  up-to-date,  such  as  a  lyric  from  the  latest  play  of 
Euripides  or  some  other  dramatist. 

After  this  the  company  separated.  The  slaves,  who  were 
in  attendance,  lighted  their  master  through  the  streets  with 
torches  or  else  with  oil-lamps  enclosed  in  lanterns  of  horn ;  and 
Pasicles  retired  to  bed,  after  seeing  that  the  storeroom  and  the 
sideboard  were  properly  sealed.  .  .  .  There  were  no  after-dinner 
speeches. 

Meanwhile  what  of  the  man  who  is  poor  ?  Might  he  resort 
to  the  gymnasia  equally  with  the  well-to-do  ?  By  all  means, 
whenever  he  could  find  the  time.  He  had  as  much  right  to 
walk  there,  sit  there,  and  listen  to  what  was  said  there,  as  any 
philosopher  of  them  all.  He  could  avail  himself  of  the  public 
baths,  or  sit  and  discourse  in  the  shops  along  with  the  best  of 
them.  It  is  this  fact,  one  may  believe,  which  made  him,  as  a 
democrat,  trouble  less  about  his  mere  pecuniary  inequality  than 
the  modern  radical  in  poverty  is  apt  to  trouble  under  the  irrita- 
tion of  his  complete  social  severance. 

And  seeing  that  the  poor  Athenian  could  not  enjoy  the 
luxuries  of  the  dinner  of  a  Pasicles,  what  did  he  live  upon  ? 

His  staple  articles  of  diet  were  barley  porridge  (with  salt 
or  honey),  barley  cake  (something  like  the  oat-cake  of  northern 
Britain),  and  barley  loaves.  To  these  he  added  vegetables,  such 
as  beans,  peas,  lentils,  cabbages,  and  onions.  Figs  and  olives 
were  to  be  had  for  little.  He  was  fond  of  thick  pea-soup  and 
lentil-soup,  and  he  bought  sausages  and  black-puddings.  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  the  sausage-dealers  are  accused  by  Aristophanes 
of  making  their  wares  occasionally  of  dog  and  donkey-meat ; 
but  that  is  a  charge  which  never  dies.  Meat  and  white  wheaten 
bread  a  poor  man  seldom,  if  ever,  tasted,  but  he  obtained 
abundant  supplies  of  salt  fish,  dried  in  slices  and  sent  from  the 
Black  Sea  in  earthen  jars.  Also  pilchards  or  sardines 
were  plentiful  and  cheap.  His  drink  was  the  wine  of  the 
country  mixed  with  water,  and  such  wine  was  purchasable  at 
about  a  penny  a  quart.  On  the  whole,  we  may  believe  that 
the  Athenian  working  man  enjoyed  a  diet  which  was  at  least 
as  wholesome  and  plentiful  as  the  diet  of  the  ordinary  English 
or  Scottish  labourer. 

In  one  connection  we  have  alluded  to  the  young  men  of 


VII 


CITIZEN'S  SOCIAL  DAY  :  DINNER,  ETC. 


99 


Athens  and  their  amusements.  We  shall  not  here  deal  with  the 
details  of  fast  life  and  wild  oats.  The  forms  of  these  were  in 
general  those  which  are  to  be  met  with  the  world  over.  They 
gambled  with  dice  in  dens  and  haunts  intended  for  that  purpose  ; 
they  trained  race-horses  and  made  bets  upon  them  ;  they  armed 
the  spurs  of  cocks,  pheasants,  and  quails  with  a  metal  point, 
pitted  them  against  each  other  on  a  board  with  a  raised  rim, 
and  made  bets  upon  the  result.  And  all  these  things,  except 
perhaps  the  betting  on  race -horses,  were  theoretically  dis- 
approved by  Athenian  morals.  Nevertheless,  cock-fighting  held 
much  the  same  position  morally  as  prize-fighting  once  did  in 
England.  It  was  disapproved  in  public,  and  considered  no 
disgrace  in  private.  Alcibiades  once  went  up  to  the  Assembly, 
and  there,  becoming  excited,  forgot  to  keep  his  mantle  closed, 
whereupon  out  flew  a  cock  quail ;  but  this  betrayal  of  his 
propensities  only  caused  laughter,  and  a  sense  that  he  was  the 
same  spirited  fellow  as  ever. 

Young  men  of  the  day,  having  no  houses  of  their  own  in 
which  to  entertain  their  male  friends,  or  not  caring  to  take 
them  there,  indulged  in  various  kinds  of  dinner-parties,  at 
which  there  was  anything  but  philosophic  conversation,  and  a 
good  deal  of  drinking.  Such  a  dinner  might  be  given  by  one 
of  their  number  at  some  room  lent  or  engaged  for  the  purpose, 
or,  very  frequently,  they  formed  themselves  into  a  sort  of  club, 
providing  the  dinner  by  joint  contribution.  This  might  be 
done  in  two  ways ;  the  one  was  called  "  dinner  by  paying  your 
shot  "  or  "  subscription  dinner,"  the  other  "  dinner  by  basket." 
The  one  expression  explains  itself ;  the  "  dinner  by  basket " 
means  that  each  contributed,  not  money,  but  an  actual  portion 
of  the  supplies,  which  their  respective  slaves  brought  in  baskets. 
This,  of  course,  is  the  original  sense  of  our  word  "  picnic,"  and 
just  as  we  are  apt  to  hold  picnics  in  the  country  or  at  the 
seaside,  so  the  Athenian  youth  was  given  to  sending  the  baskets 
to  the  shore  and  there  compiling  a  feast,  not  so  much  for  the 
love  of  external  nature,  as  from  a  desire  for  freedom  and  novelty. 
Some  of  these  coteries  of  youths  gave  themselves  special  names, 
not  more  respectable  than  those  of  the  London  young  bloods  of 
the  early  eighteenth  century — the  "  Mohawks  "  and  the  "  Tityre 
Tus,"  and  worse. 

Like  the  young  London  rakes  of  Milton's  day,  they  were 
apt,  after  a  banquet,  to  issue  into  the  streets  "  flown  with 


100 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  VII 


insolence  and  wine."  They  then  formed  a  procession,  called  a 
Komos,  headed  by  flute-players  and  accompanied  by  torches, 
and  variously  disported  themselves.  They  serenaded  ladies 
whom  they  knew ;  but  chiefly  they  were  notorious  for  forcing 
themselves  into  the  houses  of  friends  and  acquaintances  as  a 
sort  of  after-dinner  surprise-party,  not  always  very  welcome, 
but  generally  politely  received.  In  the  Banquet  of  Plato  we 
read :  "  Aristophanes  had  begun  to  answer  Socrates,  when 
suddenly  there  was  a  great  knocking  at  the  door  of  the  house, 
as  of  revellers,  and  the  sound  of  a  flute-girl  was  heard.  Agathon 
told  the  attendants  to  go  and  see  who  were  the  intruders.  '  If 
they  are  friends  of  ours/  he  said,  'invite  them  in;  but  if  not, 
say  the  symposium  is  over/  A  little  while  afterwards  they 
heard  the  voice  of  Alcibiades  resounding  in  the  court ;  he  was 
in  a  great  state  of  intoxication,  and  kept  roaring  and  shouting, 
'  Where  is  Agathon  ?  Lead  me  to  Agathon.7  '  Hail,  friends,' 
he  said,  appearing  at  the  door  crowned  with  a  massive  garland 
of  ivy  and  flowers,  his  head  flowing  with  ribbands ;  '  will  you 
have  a  very  drunken  man  as  the  companion  of  your  revels  ? 
Or  shall  I  crown  Agathon  and  go  away  ? ' "  In  the  sequel 
he  does  come  in,  and  fair  order  prevails,  while  a  philosophic 
discussion  proceeds  on  love  and  literature. 

And  that  is  all  we  need  find  it  necessary  to  say  about  the 
faster  side  of  Athenian  youth. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


woman's  life  and  fashions 

At  Athens,  more  than  anywhere  else  in  Greece,  the  woman  was 
thrust,  both  publicly  and  socially,  into  the  background.  We 
must  not  confuse  the  Athenian  woman  of  classical  times  with 
the  free  and  influential  Achaean  woman  of  the  days  of  Homer. 
We  have  already  given  some  explanation  of  the  difference,  but 
we  may  repeat  here  that  it  was  partly  due  to  the  peculiar 
racial  character  of  the  Athenians,  more  to  the  altered  conditions 
of  life  in  a  populous  and  closely  packed  city,  and  still  more  to 
the  extremely  democratic  life  of  the  male  Athenian,  which  made 
his  home  of  comparatively  little  account. 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that,  when  women  had  thus 
become  secluded,  their  sphere  of  operations  limited,  their 
character  weakened,  and  their  education  neglected,  it  became 
customary  to  look  upon  them  as  naturally  and  inevitably 
inferior  to  men,  both  intellectually  and  morally.  This  was  not 
only  the  opinion  of  the  vulgar,  it  was  held  by  philosophers  like 
Aristotle.  Experience  and  observation  of  women  as  they  were 
led  him  to  take  for  granted  that  woman  was  4 'in  general  an 
inferior  being,"  and  it  was  only  an  unusually  and  audaciously 
speculative  Plato  who  could  suggest  that  the  difference  was  due 
rather  to  circumstances  than  to  nature.  Yet  even  in  Plato  the 
special  excellence  of  a  woman  is  elsewhere  stated  to  be  "  to 
keep  house  well  and  obey  her  husband."  It  would  be  easy  to 
collect  numerous  utterances  of  poets,  philosophers,  and  orators 
to  support  this  text,  and  also  that  of  Ajax  in  Sophocles : 
"  Woman,  women  are  adorned  by  silence." 

The  Athenian  did  not,  it  is  true,  keep  his  wife  imprisoned 
after  the  manner  of  the  Turk,  nor  did  he  entertain  so  low  a 

101 


102 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


view  of  her  relation  to  himself ;  but  he  did  theoretically  main- 
tain that,  unless  on  special  occasions  and  for  good  and  sufficient 
cause  shown,  her  place  was  inside  the  house,  and  her  range 
limited  by  the  street  door.  In  practice  she  enjoyed  much  more 
liberty,  but  this  was  at  least  the  theory. 

It  follows  that,  since  her  functions  were  so  limited,  her 
education  as  a  girl  was  correspondingly  meagre.  If  she  learned 
to  read  and  write,  or  play  on  a  musical  instrument — as  she 
certainly  often  did — it  was  not  according  to  a  recognised  system 
of  education.  The  mother  or  some  attendant  might  impart  this 
knowledge,  if  she  possessed  it ;  but  the  usual  feeling  of  the 
Athenian  was  one  expressed  in  Euripides,  that  a  woman  was 
none  the  better  for  being  too  clever  intellectually.  Her  youth- 
ful training  was  therefore  directed  towards  her  domestic  duties. 
She  learned  spinning  and  weaving  and  working  embroidery,  so 
that  she  might  do  these  things  in  her  own  household,  and  also 
teach  and  direct  her  female  slaves  in  these  arts.  She  also 
learned  plain  cooking  and  domestic  management;  for  she 
would  eventually  be  called  upon  to  conduct  a  household  of  both 
male  and  female  servants  and  to  control  the  storeroom.  But 
beyond  this  her  education  did  not  go.  "  To  see  as  little  as 
possible,  to  hear  as  little  as  possible,  and  to  ask  as  few 
questions  as  possible,"  is  Xenophon's  statement  of  the  ideal 
educational  career  of  a  girl. 

As  a  little  child  her  life  was  probably  happy  enough.  She 
had  the  domestic  courtyard  to  play  in,  and  she  was  furnished 
with  toys  and  pet  animals  to  play  with.  Dolls  of  earthenware 
or  wax,  painted  and  furnished  with  movable  legs  and  arms, 
were  abundant.  Swings  were  hung  under  the  verandah  in  the 
court.  Mothers  and  nurses  were  kind,  and  she  might  be  taken 
up  to  the  roof  of  the  house  to  see  processions  in  the  streets. 
Her  little  brothers  played  about  with  her  till  their  seventh 
year.  She  might  come  in  to  dessert  when  dinner  was  but  a 
family  affair,  and  her  mid-day  meal  she  often  took  with  her 
parents  in  the  court. 

As  she  grows  older  she  receives  the  domestic  instruction 
before  mentioned,  and  the  nearer  she  comes  to  marriageable 
age  the  more  regard  she  must  have  to  modesty  of  deportment. 
Theoretically  the  unmarried  girl  must  not  be  seen  outside  the 
middle  door,  which  separates  the  women's  quarters  from  those 


VIII 


WOMAN'S  LIFE  AND  FASHIONS 


103 


of  the  more  open  house.  If  she  goes  abroad,  it  is  with  some 
elder  female  in  charge,  in  order  to  take  part  in  one  of  the  great 
festive  religious  processions,  or  in  a  funeral  ceremony,  or  to  visit 
some  temple.  So  far  as  she  is  seen  of  men,  it  must  be  on  such 
occasions  ;  and,  so  far  as  she  herself  sees  other  men  than  those 
of  her  immediate  family,  it  must  be  either  then,  or  when  she 


Fig.  41.— Swing. 


peeps  from  the  window  in  the  upper  story  or  is  permitted  to 
look  down  from  the  roof  into  the  street  on  procession  days. 
There  was  thus  little  opportunity  among  the  well-to-do  classes 
for  falling  in  love,  whether  at  first  sight  or  at  any  time. 
Nevertheless  such  a  thing  did  very  occasionally  happen ;  and 
Athenian  youths,  it  may  be  remarked,  were  highly  inflammable. 
To  them  beauty  made  strong  appeals,  and  the  appeal  was  not 
weakened  by  the  sense  of  difficulty  and  mystery. 

Yet,  after  all,  love  mattered  little  so  far  as  the  girl's  future 


104 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


was  concerned.  Let  us  imagine  her  to  be  now  of  marriageable 
age,  which  may  be  anywhere  from  fifteen  to  twenty.  We  will, 
for  convenience,  call  her  Pasiclea.  Pasiclea's  father  or  other 
guardian — if  not  her  father,  her  nearest  male  kinsman — is  pre- 
pared to  give  her  a  dowry  of  certain  dimensions,  and  he  is  look- 
ing about  for  a  suitable  match.  If  she  has  no  father,  the  nearest 
male  kinsman,  provided  he  is  a  bachelor  himself  and  is  not  a  full 
brother  nor  in  the  direct  line  of  descent,  has  the  first  claim  to 
marry  her  himself.  If  he  is  unable  or  disinclined,  he  either  fixes 
his  eyes  upon  some  suitable  citizen,  perhaps  quite  young,  but 
preferably  upwards  of  thirty  or  thirty-five,  or  he  employs  for  the 
purpose  a  professional  matchmaker — a  woman,  one  need  hardly 
say.  It  is,  of  course,  the  most  natural  proceeding  to  consider 
first  the  circle  of  his  acquaintance  and  the  sons  of  his  friends, 
but,  before  all  things,  equality  of  pecuniary  position  is  sought 
on  both  sides.  The  Athenians  had  in  this  connection  the 
proverb,  "  Keep  to  your  own  track."  If  Pasiclea's  father  or 
guardian  knew  of  no  suitable  match,  the  matchmaker  discovered 
one  for  him,  although,  truth  to  tell,  it  was  probably  more 
commonly  her  task  to  find  and  win  over  a  suitable  wife  for  some 
man  whose  time  had  come  to  settle  down. 

Meanwhile  the  proposed  bridegroom  was  being  induced  to 
marry  by  one  of  two  considerations.  For  the  most  part 
marriage  was  felt  to  be  a  burden  and  an  embarrassment. 
According  to  Euripides,  woman  was  a  "  necessary  evil."  We 
must,  it  is  true,  discount  the  attitude  of  Euripides.  When  it 
was  remarked  to  Sophocles  that  his  brother  poet  was  a  woman- 
hater,  he  replied,  "Yes,  in  his  tragedies."  Nevertheless,  the 
attitude  of  the  poet  was  fairly  general.  The  legislator  Solon 
was  asked  to  penalise  bachelors,  but  he  could  not  find  it  in  his 
heart,  for,  he  said,  "a  wife  is  a  heavy  load  to  carry."  If,  there- 
fore, an  Athenian  who  had  enjoyed  no  opportunity  of  falling  in 
love  was  considering  matrimony,  it  was  either  because  his  father 
was  insisting  upon  it,  or  because  of  a  consideration  which  is 
nowadays  not  quite  so  easy  to  understand,  but  which  was  then 
exceedingly  potent.  Every  citizen  desired  to  leave  behind  him 
some  one,  not  merely  for  the  usual  and  natural  motives,  such  as 
to  continue  his  family  and  inherit  his  possessions,  but,  before 
and  above  all,  to  bury  him  and  pay  due  honours  to  his  body  and 
his  tomb.  The  attitude  of  the  Athenian  towards  the  after- 
world  belongs  to  the  discussion  of  Athenian  religion,  but  thus 


VIII 


WOMAN'S  LIFE  AND  FASHIONS 


105 


much  should  be  said  here,  that  the  comfort  and  honour  of  the 
dead  in  the  region  beyond  death  were  held  to  depend  upon  the 
attentions  paid  to  the  corpse  and  to  the  place  where  it  was 
buried.  A  ghost  who  had  no  posterity  on  earth  was  in  a 
lamentable  plight  in  Hades.  Apart  from  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion  and  ideas  of  good  form,  from  the  encouragement  of  the 
state,  and  from  considerations  of  his  old  age  and  its  environ- 
ment, the  citizen  had  this  strong  motive  prompting  him  to 
undertake  what  otherwise  he  might  have  been  disposed  to 
avoid. 

Well,  a  match  for  Pasiclea  is  made.  If  it  is  ideal,  she  will 
be  about  eighteen,  and  her  future  husband  about  thirty-two. 
Women  aged  rapidly  in  Greece,  and  this  difference  of  age  was 
therefore  regarded  as  some  sort  of  adjustment. 

The  first  and  most  important  ceremony  was  the  betrothal, 
at  which,  by  the  way,  it  was  not  in  the  least  necessary  that  the 
girl  should  be  present.  Properly  speaking,  the  affair  is  a  con- 
tract between  persons  entitled  so  to  contract,  and  the  girl  has 
no  standing  in  the  matter.  A  dowry  is  agreed  upon,  and  a 
solemn  "  pledging "  is  performed  in  the  presence  of  witnesses. 
Without  this  "  giving  away,"  as  it  was  called,  an  Athenian 
marriage  is  invalid.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  a  marriage  in 
the  presence  of  priests  or  of  representatives  of  the  state. 
Indeed  there  was  no  church  at  all  in  our  sense  of  the  word. 
The  only  ceremony  after  the  pledging  was  the  "  fetching  home," 
which  took  place  at  a  later  day  and  which  we  may  regard  as 
the  actual  wedding.  This  previous  solemnity  before  witnesses 
was  therefore  indispensable.  So  far  as  the  dowry  was  concerned, 
it  belonged  to  the  wife,  must  be  given  back  if  she  was  divorced, 
and  when  she  died,  it  went,  not  to  her  husband,  but  to  her 
nearest  of  kin.  A  consequence  of  this  position  was  that  a 
wealthy  wife  sometimes  became  the  predominant  partner  and 
kept  her  husband  in  submission  to  the  power  of  the  purse. 

The  actual  wedding  of  Pasiclea  will  take  place  when  the 
moon  is  near  the  full,  and  probably  in  the  winter.  Before  the 
ceremony  sacrifices  to  the  gods  of  marriage  will  be  made  in 
both  houses,  and  a  sort  of  sacramental  bathing  will  be  de  rigueur. 
The  groom,  perfumed  and  dressed  in  his  gayest,  and  wearing  a 
wreath,  arrives,  together  with  his  best  man,  his  parents,  and 
his  friends  at  the  home  of  the  bride,  which  he  finds  decorated 
at  the  doors  with  olive  and  laurel  boughs.    There  the  marriage 


106 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


feast  is  prepared,  and  prominent  at  that  feast  is  the  good  old 
wedding-cake,  made,  at  Athens,  chiefly  of  pounded  sesame-seeds 
mixed  with  honey.  On  this  occasion  the  men  and  women  for 
once  feast  together,  but  the  women  do  not  recline ;  they  are 
seated  together  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  room  from  the  men. 
The  bride  is  all  the  time  veiled,  and  some  of  the  party,  even 
including  the  groom,  may  never  have  seen  her  face.  Never- 
theless, the  party  is  festive  and  conversation  is  general,  as  we 
perceive  from  a  passage  in  Theophrastus,  who,  talking  of  the 
gaucheries  committed  by  the  Inopportune  Man,  remarks  that 


Fig.  42. — Marriage  Drocession  to  fetch  the  bride. 


"  when  he  is  a  guest  at  a  wedding  he  is  the  sort  of  man  to  run 
down  the  female  sex."  The  feast  over,  and  evening  having 
come,  a  flute-player  is  heard  at  the  door ;  the  respective 
mothers  light  each  a  pair  of  torches ;  the  bride,  veiled  all  the 
time,  is  led  out  to  a  carriage  or  some  sort  of  vehicle,  where  she 
seats  herself  between  the  groom  and  the  best  man,  who  are 
standing.  Before  them  go  the  flute-players,  and  before  and 
around  them  a  procession  of  friends,  singing  that  hymeneal 
song  which,  in  its  inevitableness,  corresponds  somewhat  to  our 
wedding  march.  Behind  walks  the  mother  of  the  bride, 
carrying  her  torches.  Meanwhile  the  people  in  the  streets 
cheer  them  and  wish  them  joy  with  no  little  blending  of 
facetiousness.    At  the  bridegroom's  door,  which  is  also  deco- 


viii 


WOMAN'S  LIFE  AND  FASHIONS 


107 


rated,  the  bride  is  formally  received  by  his  mother  ;  confetti 
are  scattered  over  the  party  ;  Pasiclea  eats  a  piece  of  quince — 
an  emblem,  possibly,  because  of  its  bitter-sweetness,  of  our 
"  for  better  or  worse " — and  she  is  led  into  the  house.  A 
chorus  of  girls  sing  a  song  known  as  the  epithalamion,  and  the 
party  disperses. 

On  the  following  day,  which  is  called  the  "  unveiling,"  the 


Fig.  43:— Girl  with  distaff. 


newly  married  couple  are  "  at  home  "  to  their  friends.  Some- 
times they  have  already  been  honoured  by  a  morning  song  at 
the  door.  Pasiclea  unveils  herself,  and  receives  the  wedding 
presents  which  the  visitors  have  brought,  including  vases, 
dishes,  slippers  and  sandals,  mirrors,  combs,  soaps,  perfumes, 
and  whatsoever  other  things  were  most  affected  before  fish- 
slices and  hair-brushes  were  invented. 

From  this  time  forward  she  is  mistress  of  the  house,  allots 
duties,  and  dispenses  stores.  She  wakes  the  slaves,  if  necessary, 
in  the  morning,  instructs  them  in  their  tasks,  and  carries  the 


108 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


keys.  She  will  herself  perform  a  fair  amount  of  spinning  and 
weaving.  At  the  latter  she  will  get  no  little  exercise,  and,  if 
she  does  her  work  in  the  courtyard,  a  fair  amount  of  fresh  air 
also.  She  must  be  strict  in  her  discipline,  for  the  Athenian 
slave  had  his  or  her  foibles.  There  were,  it  is  true,  no  cats,  but 
weasels  and  harmless  snakes  were  employed  to  keep  down  the 
mice,  and  when  anything  was  broken,  or  when  food  mysteriously 
disappeared,  it  was  usual  for  the  slave  to  declare  that  "  it  must 
have  been  the  weasel."  Pasiclea  is  herself  a  young  lady  of 
proper  instincts.  She  is  not  wasteful,  and  she  does  not  drink 
wine,  as  some  older  and  less  refined  Athenian  women  appear 


Fig.  44. — Penelope  at  her  loom. 


to  have  done  too  frequently.  Her  husband  will  therefore 
never  be  guilty,  as  others  sometimes  were,  of  the  severity,  or 
the  meanness,  of  locking  up  the  storeroom  and  sealing  the  door. 

Her  position  is  beyond  question  entirely  subordinate,  but 
it  is  one  in  which  she  is  respected  and  can  respect  herself.  Her 
husband  may,  or  may  not,  permit  her  to  talk  politics  at  lunch 
or  family  dinner.  That  wives  often  did  this,  or  attempted  it, 
is  certain.  Complains  one  lady  in  Aristophanes  :  "Then  we 
would  ask :  1  Husband,  how  came  you  men  to  bungle  this 
business  so  stupidly  ? '  And  he  would  promptly  scowl  and 
say  that  if  I  didn't  attend  to  my  spinning,  I  should  be  very 
sorry  for  myself."  Yet  even  if  her  spouse  were  thus  con- 
temptuous, there  were  two  things  which,  if  he  was  a  gentleman, 
he  would  not  do.  He  would  not  permit  any  man  to  speak 
rudely  or  unbecomingly  in  the  presence  of  his  women-folk,  and 
he  would  not  put  himself  in  any  undignified  position  which 


VIII 


WOMAN'S  LIFE  AND  FASHIONS 


109 


would  humiliate  him  before  them.  Demosthenes,  in  a  famous 
passage,  enlarges  on  the  mortification  of  a  man  who  is  compelled 
to  hide  from  an  unreasonable  arrest  by  climbing  over  his 
neighbour's  roof,  or  creeping  under  a  bed,  or  otherwise  cutting 
a  poor  figure  "  in  the  sight  of  his  own  wife,  to  whom  he 
betrothed  himself  in  the  character  of  a  free  man  and  a  citizen 
of  the  state."  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  disbelieve  that  the 
domestic  relations  were  often  accompanied  by  a  tolerable 
degree  of  affection  on  either  side. 

Yet,  with  all  this,  Pasiclea's  married  life  would  be  regarded 
in  these  days  as  extremely  monotonous.  During  her  younger 
years,  at  least,  she  will  be  kept  much  within  doors.  If  she 
goes  out,  it  will  be  theoretically  with  her  husband's  consent, 
and  accompanied  by  a  female  attendant.  Even  if  the  husband 
was  indulgent,  public  opinion  had  to  be  consulted.  According 
to  one  of  the  orators,  "  the  woman  who  goes  out  of  doors  ought 
to  be  of  such  an  age  that  those  who  meet  her  may  ask,  not 
whose  wife  she  is,  but  whose  mother  she  is." 

We  may,  perhaps,  be  of  opinion  that  all  this  insistence  of 
good  advice  on  the  part  of  poets  and  orators  is  but  a  sign 
that  the  strict  rule  of  seclusion  was  a  good  deal  honoured  in 
the  breach.  We  know  that  women  often  did  walk  out  with 
their  attendants,  that  they  certainly  went  out  occasionally  to 
purchase  things,  that  they  paid  visits  to  each  other  and  talked 
gossip  and  dress,  and  that  they  sometimes  asked  each  other  to 
lunch.  Moreover,  there  were  certain  recognised  occasions  on 
which  they  were  expected  to  move  abroad.  They  went  to  the 
theatre  to  see  the  tragedies  performed,  although  apparently 
they  were  not  allowed,  or  at  least  countenanced — and  a  good 
thing  too — at  the  comedies.  They  went  to  the  great  proces- 
sions, and  to  the  mysteries.  There  were  certain  religious 
festivals  which  belonged  exclusively  to  women.  They  went 
also,  as  we  have  seen,  to  weddings,  as  well  as  to  funerals  and 
to  various  festivities  and  ceremonies  connected  therewith. 

In  the  house  itself  they  had  their  work,  often  their  music, 
their  children,  and,  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  a  number  of 
female  slaves,  who  were  mentally  quite  as  cultivated  as  them- 
selves. What  Pasiclea  might  be  like  when  at  home  we  can 
discern  from  illustrations  such  as  those  here  reproduced.  The 
lady  seated  on  the  left  is  working  on  a  frame,  the  lady  on  the 
right  is  using  unguents. 


110 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Only  too  frequently  the  women — though  not,  of  course,  our 
good  Pasiclea — were  given  to  peeping  out  of  the  door  or  the 
upstairs  window  into  the  street.  Says  a  chorus  of  women  in 
Aristophanes  :  "You  were  always  calling  us  the  very  mischief. 
If  we  are  the  mischief,  why  do  you  marry  us  1  And  why  do 
you  forbid  us  to  leave  the  house  or  to  be  caught  peeping  out  1 
And  if  the  wifey  goes  out  anywhere,  and  you  find  her  not  at 
home,  you  get  mad  as  mad  can  be.  And  if  we  take  a  peep 
out  of  window,  you  try  to  get  a  look  at  the  mischief.  And  if 
she  is  abashed  and  draws  back,  you  are  all  the  more  eager  to 
see  the  mischief  taking  another  peep  !  " 

Nor  let  it  be  forgotten  that,  though  legally  and  by  custom 
subordinate,  the  woman  had  ways  of  her  own  of  reversing 


Fig.  45.— Women  at  home. 


the  position.  There  were  plenty  of  men  who  from  uxoriousness 
or  weakness  of  character,  or  because  they  had  married  money 
or  a  vixen,  were  "ruled  by  the  slipper."  Perhaps  it  was  in 
joke  that  Themistocles  declared  that  his  child  ruled  Greece : 
"For  Athens  rules  Greece,  and  I  rule  Athens,  and  my  wife 
rules  me,  and  the  child  rules  her."  On  the  other  hand,  the 
scolding  Xanthippe,  the  wife  of  Socrates,  was  by  no  means  a 
joke.  A  speech  of  a  plain  old  squireen  in  Aristophanes  is 
worth  reciting:  "I  wish  to  goodness  the  matchmaker  had 
come  to  a  miserable  end  who  induced  me  to  marry  your 
mother.  For  I  thoroughly  enjoyed  my  rustic  life,  untidy,  in 
the  rough,  free-and-easy,  all  among  the  bees  and  sheep  and 
olive-cakes.  But  then  I  married  the  niece  of  Megacles  the 
son  of  Megacles — a  countryman  like  me  marrying  a  city 
madam,  a  haughty  pampered  Lady  Vere  de  Vere  !  ...  And 
afterwards,  when  this  son  was  born  to  me  and  this  good  wife 


VIII 


WOMAN'S  LIFE  AND  FASHIONS 


111 


of  mine,  then  we  began  to  wrangle  and  abuse  one  another 
about  his  name.  She  wanted  to  tack  hippos  to  it — Xanthippos 
or  Chairhippos  or  Callippides, — while  I  was  for  giving  him 
my  grandfather's  name,  Pheidonides.  So  for  awhile  we 
quarrelled,  but  at  last  came  to  an  agreement  and  called  him 
Pheidippides " — which  is  very  much  as  if  she  wanted  to  call 
him  Marmaduke,  while  he  preferred  Hodge,  and  they  com- 
promised with  Hodgaduke. 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  contrived  so  to  dress  our  Athenian 
male  citizen  that  his  appearance  became,  we  may  hope, 
tolerably  clear.  One  may  shrink  from  attempting  the  same 
task  with  Pasiclea.  After 
studying  all  the  obtainable 
descriptions  and  examining  all 
the  obtainable  pictures  and 
diagrams,  we  may  have  learned 
to  know  very  well  how  the 
various  dresses  and  arrange- 
ments of  dresses  look  and 
ought  to  look,  but  in  several 
of  the  more  complicated  in- 
stances we  may  still  be  some- 
what confused  as  to  exactly 
how  they  were  put  on.  It  is 
perhaps  best,  therefore,  to  con- 
tent ourselves  with  giving  a 
general  description  and  offering 
such  illustrations  as  seem  most  FlG.  46.-Putting  on  the  tunic, 
helpful.    A  member  of  the  sex 

concerned  will  perhaps  see  at  a  glance  how  the  thing  was  done, 
while  the  male  reader  will  probably  care  only  for  the  result. 

As  with  the  men,  the  female  attire  consisted  ordinarily 
of  two.  chief  portions,  the  light  under-dress  and  the  heavier 
mantle  or  shawl,  both  of  them  properly  bearing  the  same 
Greek  names  as  those  of  the  men.  With  the  women,  however, 
there  was  naturally  more  variety  of  shape  or  make,  and 
various  other  names,  not  too  precisely  understood,  are  applied 
in  virtue  of  difference  of  details.  What  in  the  case  of  the 
man  is  the  tunic,  is  in  the  case  of  the  women  both  longer  and 
fuller.    The  girdle  also  was  wider  and  more  important.  The 


112 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


tunic  may  be  sleeved  or  sleeveless,  and  its  sleeves  may  be 
close  or  bell-shaped.  It  is  commonly  fastened  with  a  brooch 
or  pin  over  the  right  shoulder,  and  mostly  has  a  double  fold 
over  the  breast.  Decorated  with  a  border,  and  itself  most 
frequently  of  saffron  colour,  it  served  as  the  ordinary  attire 
for  the  house ;  and  very  graceful  it  can  look,  as  some  at  least 
of  the  figures  in  the  illustrations  may  show.  Unlike  the 
tunic  of  the  men,  it  often  trailed  behind. 


Fig.  47. — Women's  tunics. 

For  out-of-doors  and  visiting  the  upper  garment  was  put 
on  and  carefully  draped  round  the  body,  sometimes  even 
being  drawn  over  the  head,  if  a  separate  headcover  or  veil 
was  not  employed.  For  be  it  remembered  that  the  women, 
like  the  men,  wore  no  hat,  except  in  the  country,  when  a 
large  sun-hat  was  allowed.  This  upper  garment  also  was  more 
diversified  than  that  of  the  other  sex. 

In  respect  of  material  we  find  not  only  woollen,  cotton, 
and  ordinary  linen,  but  also  a  fine  kind  of  material  of  which 
the  exact  nature  is  not  known,  but  which  could  apparently 
be  made  diaphanous  and  suggests  muslin.    Towards  the  end 


VIII 


WOMAN'S  LIFE  AND  FASHIONS 


113 


of  our  period  manufactured  silk  is  finding  its  way  into 
Athenian  households.  In  respect  of  colours,  we  find  in 
particular  saffron,  purple,  apple -green, 
olive-green,  grey-blue,  golden-brown,  and 
white. 

And  here,  in  order  to  show  that  in 
matter  of  dress  and  its  interest  the 
eternal  feminine  was  the  same  in  ancient 
Greece  as  in  modern  Everywhere,  we 
may  cull  a  passage  from  a  poetical 
genre -sketch  by  Theocritus.  In  view 
of  what  we  have  learned  concerning  the 
restrictions  upon  Athenian  women,  it 
must  indeed  be  premised  that  the  scene 
is  at  Alexandria,  where  women  doubtless 
enjoyed  more  freedom  than  at  Athens, 
and  also  that  it  was  written  there  some 
two  generations  later  than  our  period. 
Nevertheless,  in  general,  it  would  serve  for  a  fairly  vivid 
picture  of  Athenian  bourgeois  life  on  a  day  of  festival.  Gorgo 
calls  upon  Praxinoe  on  the  feast  of  Adonis.  An  infant, 
Zopyrion,  and  Eunoe,  the  maid,  are  present.  The  conversation 
proceeds  thus  : — 


Fig.  48.— Doric  girl's  dress. 


Gor.     Is  Praxinoe  in  ? 

Prax.  My  dear  Gorgo  !  At  last !  Yes,  in.  It's  a  wonder  you 
come  at  all.  Look  for  a  chair  for  her,  Eunoe.  And  put  a  cushion 
in  it. 

Gor.    Thanks  ;  don't  trouble. 
Prax.    Sit  down. 

Gor.  The  foolishness  of  me  !  I  have  hardly  got  to  you  alive, 
for  the  crowd  and  the  four-in-hands.  Boots  and  swaggering  soldiers 
everywhere  !  And  the  journey  is  interminable  !  My  dear  woman, 
you  live  quite  too  far  afield. 

Prax.  Yes,  that  insane  creature  came  to  the  ends  of  the  earth 
and  bought  a  hole,  not  a  house  to  live  in,  just  to  stop  us  from  being 
neighbours  ;  out  of  spite,  the  jealous  wretch — always  his  way. 

Gor.  Don't  speak  of  your  husband  like  that,  my  dear,  before  the 
little  one.  My  good  woman,  see  how  he  is  looking  at  you  !  Never 
mind,  Zopyrion,  sweet  child  ;  she  doesn't  mean  daddy  ! 

Prax.    The  bairn  is  taking  notice,  I  declare. 

Gor.    Nice  daddy  ! 

I 


114 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Prax.  Yes,  and  the  other  day  that  daddy  was  to  buy  soda  and 
rouge  from  the  market,  and  came  back  with  salt — for  all  he's  a  man 
twenty  feet  high  ! 

Gor.  My  man  Diocleides  is  just  the  same— throws  money  away  ! 
Yesterday  he  bought  five  fleeces — seven  shillings  for  dog's  hair, 
pickings  from  old  bags,  nothing  but  dirt,  endless  work  !  But  come, 
get  your  gown  and  shawl. 

Prax.  Eunoe  .  .  .  move  yourself !  Be  quick  with  some  water  ! 
.  .  .  You  silly  thing  !  why  are  you  wetting  my  dress  ?  That  will 
do  !  Please  heaven,  I  have  had  some  sort  of  a  wash.  Where  is  the 
key  of  the  big  chest  ?    Bring  it  here. 

Gor.  Praxinoe,  that  full  gown  is  very  becoming.  Tell  me,  how 
much  did  it  come  to,  before  it  was  off  the  loom  ? 

Prax.  Don't  mention  it,  Gorgo.  More  than  eight  guineas,  good 
money  down  !    And  then  I  worked  myself  to  death  over  it. 


Fig.  49.— Women's  hair  (ideal) ;  from  coins. 


Gor,    Well,  it  has  turned  out  a  success. 

Prax.    It  is  kind  of  you  to  say  so  .  .  . 

Bring  me  my  shawl,  and  put  my  sun-hat  on  properly  .  .  . 

I  shan't  take  you,  child.  Bogey-man  !  Horse  bites !  Cry  as 
much  as  you  like ;  we  must  not  have  you  crippled.  Let  us  be  going. 
Phrygia,  take  the  little  one  and  play.  Call  the  dog  inside.  Shut 
the  front  door. 

The  hair  of  the  Grecian  women  was  generally  long  and 
rich,  and  infinite  pains  were  spent  on  dressing  it  with  taste 
and  elegance.  According  to  the  Athenian  ideal  it  should  be 
wavy,  display  not  too  much  forehead,  and  should  be  either 
blue-black  or  golden.  Golden,  being  the  rarer  colour,  was  one 
much  affected  by  those  ladies  who  systematically  improved 
upon  nature.  The  fashion  of  dressing  the  hair  was  subject 
to  much  variation,  but  even  at  one  and  the  same  date  the 


VIII 


WOMAN'S  LIFE  AND  FASHIONS 


115 


Athenian  women  sought  no  monotonous  uniformity.  They 
were  satisfied  if  the  result  was  graceful  and  becoming.  When 
the  hair  had  been  drawn  in  graceful  curves  into  a  knot  or  ball 
at  the  back  of  the  head,  it  was  sometimes  kept  in  place  by  a 
net  of  threadwork — gold  thread  by  preference ;  sometimes  a 
strip  or  band  of  coloured  material  was  wound  artistically  round 
it ;  on  less  showy  occasions  it  is  to  be  seen  depicted  as  enclosed 
in  a  complete  bag  or  bladder.  Combs  and  pins  were  also  used, 
and,  in  fullest  dress,  a  golden  or  gilded  coronal  or  frontlet 
stood  up  in  the  same  place  in  which  ladies  now  wear  a  tiara. 


Perhaps  a  far  clearer  notion  will  be  formed  at  once  from  a 
glance  at  a  few  illustrations  than  could  be  derived  from  any 
amount  of  description. 

The  footwear  of  women  consisted  of  sandals,  of  white 
slippers  which  would  fit  either  foot,  of  easy  yellow  shoes, 
and  occasionally  of  soft  high  boots.  Fans  of  peacocks'  feathers 
or  simply  of  light  wood,  and  a  parasol  for  out-of-doors,  are 
other  articles  of  equipment. 

For  ornaments,  both  of  girls  and  matrons,  there  were  worn 
gold  earrings  (spirals  or  with  drops),  gold  necklets,  gold 
bracelets  on  the  upper  arm  (mostly  shaped  like  snakes),  rings, 
and  frequently  gold  bands  on  the  ankles.  The  mother  of 
Alcibiades,  we  are  told,  wore  "perhaps  £500  worth,"  if  we 
may  venture  once  more  to  modernise  the  value  of  money. 


Fig.  50.— Woman  with  fan. 


116 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  VIII 


And  here,  perhaps,  we  ought  in  chivalry  to  stop.  But  our 
duty  is  to  be  historical  first  and  chivalrous  afterwards,  and 
we  are  therefore  bound  to  add  that  many  Athenian  women 
adopted  every  known  device  for  improving  Nature's  handiwork. 
When  they  were  too  short,  they  of  course  wore  high  cork  soles 
to  their  shoes.  The  Athenians  did  not  believe  in  wasp-like 
waists,  but,  if  their  figure  was  distinctly  not  perfection,  they 
did  not  shrink  from  padding  or  from 
physical  compression.  They  not  only 
anointed  their  hair — as  every  one  was 
supposed  to  do — but  they  dyed  it,  and 
wore  false  additions.  They  were  liberal 
with  rouge,  vegetable  dyes,  white-lead,  and 
other  preparations.  They  rubbed  lamp- 
black or  sulphuret  of  antimony  under  their 
eyes  and  on  the  eyebrows.  Xenophon  has 
a  rather  Sandford-and-Merton  little  treatise 
on  model  housekeeping,  and  in  this  the 
somewhat  pedantic  and  priggish  husband 
warns  his  wife  that  perspiration  or  tears 
will  betray  her,  and  he  asks  what  she 
would  think  of  him  if  he  came  in  be-rouged. 
As  if,  forsooth,  she  was  chiefly  considering 
him !  More  effective  is  the  comic  poet, 
who  thus  remonstrates  with  one  lady  when 
she  overdoes  the  thing :  "  If  you  go  out 
in  summer,  from  your  eyes  there  run  two 
streaks  of  black ;  from  your  cheeks  perspiration  makes  a  red 
furrow  down  to  your  neck ;  and  when  your  hair  touches  your 
face  it  gets  white  with  white-lead."  Beyond  this,  perhaps,  we 
must  not  pry.  Moreover,  our  good  Pasiclea  has  little  to  do 
with  such  things. 


Fig.  51.— Greek  mirror. 


CHAPTER  IX 


BOYHOOD — EDUCATION  AND  TRAINING 

Time  has  passed,  and  Pasiclea  has  a  son.  The  outer  door  is 
decorated  with  an  olive  branch  in  honour  of  that  event.  By 
that  sign  it  is  known  to  all  whom  it  may  concern  that  the 
child  is  a  boy.  Had  it  been  a  girl,  a  fillet  of  wool  would  have 
been  seen  instead.  The  father  is  much  rejoiced,  for  girls  were 
regarded  with  less  favour,  and,  in  poor  houses,  as  rather  a 
burden.  So  far  did  this  prejudice  go  that  Athenian  mothers 
were  sometimes  known  to  substitute  some  other  woman's  male 
child  for  their  own  female  offspring.  Occasionally  the  child 
was  not  merely  an  exchange,  but  entirely  supposititious. 
Demosthenes,  speaking  of  a  virulent  opponent,  says :  "  His 
real  mother  was  the  most  sensible  of  women ;  she  sold  him  as 
soon  as  he  was  born.  His  supposititious  mother  was  the  most 
foolish,  for  she  bought  him  when  she  could  have  bought  a 
better  for  the  same  money." 

And  here  we  must  say  a  word  concerning  a  most  distressing 
feature  in  ancient  Greek  life.  It  was  optional  for  a  father  to 
rear  his  child  or  not.  To  put  it  crudely,  he  had  the  absolute 
disposal  of  it ;  if  he  were  very  poor,  or  if  the  child  were 
deformed,  or  if  he  chose  to  entertain  any  other  motive  for  the 
act,  he  could  expose  the  infant  to  live  or  die.  The  practice, 
of  course,  dates  from  a  time  when  food  was  scarce  and  life 
was  a  terrible  struggle.  We  must  not  suppose  that  such  ex- 
posure was  very  frequent  on  the  part  of  true  Athenian  citizens 
of  our  period.  There  was  necessarily  a  reasonable  amount  of 
natural  affection ;  there  was  the  maternal  influence ;  there  was 
the  drag  of  public  opinion ;  there  was  the  desire  of  possessing 
children  to  honour  one's  own  sepulchre.    Nevertheless,  the 

117 


118 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


practice  was  one  fully  recognised  as  legal,  and  the  poor  availed 
themselves  of  it,  particularly  in  the  case  of  unwelcome  female 
children.  The  usual  proceeding  in  such  cases  was  to  place 
the  infant  in  a  large  earthenware  vessel  or  pot,  and  leave  it, 
either  in  the  precincts  of  a  temple  or  in  some  other  place  where 
it  would  easily  be  found.  It  is  tolerably  certain  that  the  child 
was  very  seldom  left  to  perish.  Vulgarly  they  called  this 
"potting"  the  child.  If  any  person  who  found  it  chose  to 
bring  it  up,  he  could  reckon  it  as  his  slave,  or  employ  it  as  he 
would ;  and  mothers  were  therefore  in  the  habit  of  attaching 
to  the  exposed  infant  certain  tokens,  in  the  shape  of  trinkets 
or  amulets,  by  which  a  possible  recognition  might  take  place  in 
the  vague  future. 

Pasiclea's  little  boy,  however,  runs  no  such  risk.  He  is 
only  too  welcome.  After  he  had  been  bathed  in  water  and 
oil,  he  is  wrapped  in  swaddling-clothes, 
after  a  fashion  which  makes  him  look 
something  between  a  chrysalis  and  an 
Indian  papoose.  A  long  strip  of  cloth  is 
wound  round  and  round  him.  He  will 
subsequently  occupy  a  cradle,  generally 
shaped  like  a  shoe,  which  is  either  hung  up  and  swung  to  and 
fro,  or  else  rocked  with  the  feet. 

A  few  days  after  the  birth — on  the  fifth,  seventh,  or  tenth 
day — there  takes  place  a  little  ceremony,  in  which  the  child  is 
carried  by  the  nurse  at  a  run  round  a  fire  blazing  on  the  family 
hearth,  and  at  which  he  is  acknowledged  by  the  father.  On 
the  tenth  day,  whether  the  aforesaid  ceremony  occur  on  that 
day  or  have  preceded  it,  there  is  a  festive  gathering,  a  special 
cake  is  eaten,  and  the  child  receives  his  name.  The  proceedings 
remind  one  forcibly  of  a  christening,  both  in  this  respect  and 
also  because  of  the  presents  made  to  the  child.  Among  these 
are  commonly  included  little  charms  or  amulets  to  be  worn  as 
means  of  averting  the  evil  eye.  The  boy  receives  but  one 
name,  and  at  Athens,  it  may  be  remarked,  some  names  were  of 
a  more  aristocratic  colour  than  others.  As  old  family  names 
they  suggested  what  the  Americans  call  "  first  families."  It 
was  a  much  finer  thing  to  be  called  Megacles  than  Pheidon. 
But  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  the  meanest  Athenian  from 
calling  his  son  by  the  equivalent  of  Plantagenet  or  De  Mont- 
morency.   The  favourite  name  for  the  eldest  son  was  that  of 


feOYHOOD— EDUCATION  AND  TRAINING 


119 


his  paternal  grandfather,  so  that  a  pedigree  was  apt  to  run 
thus  :  Aristides,  Lysimachus,  Aristides,  Lysimachus, — and  so 
on  ad  infinitum.  This  was,  however,  in  no  way  binding,  and 
if  Nausinicus  so  chose,  he  could  call  his  son  Nausinicus  also,  or 
change  half  the  name  and  call  him  Nausiphilus,  or,  in  short,  do 
exactly  as  he  pleased.  There  was  also  nothing,  except  the 
practical  inconvenience,  to  prevent  a  man  in  after  life  from 
changing  his  name,  either  to  a  more  aristocratic  appearance,  as 
from  Simon  to  Simonides,  or  from  Tromes  to  Atrometus,  or 
else  adopting  a  nickname,  as  in  the  case  of  Plato,  whose  true 
name  was  Aristocles,  but  who  was  called  "  Plato "  from  his 
broad  shoulders. 

Well,  let  us  call  Pasiclea's  little  boy  Lysimachus,  and  take 
him  through  the  pilgrimage  of  his  childhood.  It  is  highly 
probable  that  he  will  be  nursed  by  a  foster-mother,  who  will 
rock  his  cradle,  sing  him  lullabies  and  charms  to  keep  off  the 
evil  eye,  and  teach  him  to  walk.  Or  an  elderly  slave  woman 
will  take  him  in  charge,  chastise  him  with  the  slipper  when  he 
is  naughty,  and  frighten  him  with  wolves  and  bogeys  who  take 
numerous  shapes  and  perhaps  eat  people.  She  will  teach  him 
nursery  rhymes,  and  will  tell  him  all  manner  of  legends  of  a 
mythological  character,  and  also  fables  of  Aesop.  Her  regular 
mode  of  beginning  is,  "Once  on  a  time  there  was  .  .  .  ,"  or 
"  So  there  was  once  .  .  .  ."  Her  stories  will  not  always 
contribute  to  his  intellectual  development,  and  both  Plato  and 
Aristotle  look  with  disfavour  upon  the  mental  effects  of  the 
"  old  wives'  tales  "  as  impressed  in  early  childhood.  But  the 
fables  of  Aesop  were  deemed  good,  and  not  to  know  your  Aesop 
is  equivalent  to  having  had  no  decent  education. 

Till  his  seventh  year  the  little  Lysimachus  is  reared  in  the 
women's  quarters.  He  has  plenty  of  playthings  ;  rattles,  balls, 
hoops,  whip-toys  and  spinning-tops,  toy  carts,  and  the  like. 
His  father  is  good  to  him,  and  the  rustic  old  gentleman,  whom 
we  have  already  had  occasion  to  quote  from  Aristophanes, 
describes  how,  with  the  first  obol  he  ever  got  for  serving  on  a 
jury,  he  bought  his  little  boy  a  little  waggon.  He  has  also 
pet  animals  :  little  dogs,  tortoises,  ducks  and  other  birds.  The 
little  fellow  at  this  period  of  his  life  has  been  already  depicted 
in  an  illustration.  The  impulse  to  plastic  art  was  so  strong 
by  instinct  and  example  at  Athens,  that  the  child  himself 


120 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


is  always  modelling  and  making  things  out  of  clay  or  wax  or 
fruit-peel. 

But,  says  Plato,  the  boy  is  "  the  most  unmanageable  of 
animals,"  and  therefore  in  his  eighth  year  his  lot  begins  to  be 
somewhat  less  pleasant.  He  is  taken  from  the  women's  domain 
and  handed  over  to  a  male  slave,  known  as  the  paedagogus  (see 
Fig.  54),  who  is  to  look  after  his  goings  and  comings,,  take  him 
to  and  from  school,  and  generally  superintend  his  manners. 
This  worthy,  with  his  beard  and  cloak  and  long  stick,  is  a 
familiar  figure  in  drama  and  in  the  paintings  on  vases.  He  is 
not  a  teacher  or  schoolmaster,  and  our  use  of  the  word 
"  pedagogue"  differs  widely  from  the  Greek  sense.  He  is 
rather  a  bear-leader.  In  theory  he  should  be  an  elderly  person 
of  superior  character  and  some  cultivation.  In  practice  he 
was  often  simply  a  slave  who  was  past  active  work  or  other- 
wise unfit  for  it. 

When  the  boy  goes  to  school  or  elsewhere  the  paedagogus 
will  walk  behind  him,  carrying  his  books,  writing-tablets,  and 
musical  instruments,  and  seeing  that  he  speaks  to  no  one, 
carries  himself  properly,  and  fixes  his  eyes  modestly  on  the 
ground.  At  home  he  will  watch  his  manners  and  habits,  seeing 
that  he  uses  his  left  hand  for  the  bread  but  his  right  hand  for 
other  food,  and  that  he  keeps  silence  in  the  presence  of  his 
elders  and  gets  up  from  his  seat  when  they  enter.  He  will  not 
permit  Lysimachus  to  sit  cross-legged  nor  with  his  chin  propped 
on  his  hand.  To  prevent  these  things  he  may  scold  or  use  his 
stick.  The  well-bred  Athenian  attached  the  greatest  importance 
to  such  details  of  life.  According  to  Plato,  they  "  were  more 
careful  for  good  manners  and  behaviour  than  for  reading  arid 
writing  and  playing  music."  There  were,  of  course,  weak  and 
inefficient  slaves  in  this  position,  and  all  along  it  must  be 
understood  that  only  the  better  classes  could  afford  all  this 
careful  provision  for  their  boys.  In  point  of  fact,  boys  played 
a  good  deal  in  the  streets,  whipping  their  tops,  playing  at 
duckstone,  tug-of-war,  games  of  catching,  blind-man's-buff, 
"  odd  or  even,"  and  "  How  many  fingers  do  I  hold  up  1 "  They 
tied  cockchafers  by  the  leg  and  let  them  fly.  They  had  a  game 
corresponding  to  marbles,  but  played  with  nuts,  which  they 
pitched  into  a  hole. 

But  our  young  friend  Lysimachus  is  receiving  an  ideal 
education,  and  to  school  he  goes  with  his  paedagogus  behind 


IX 


BOYHOOD— EDUCATION  AND  TRAINING  121 


him.  It  is  not  a  boarding-school,  nor  a  public  school,  for  there 
are  no  such  things ;  but  it  may  be  a  school  of  no  small  size, 
with  perhaps  a  hundred  pupils  or  more.  The  numbers  neces- 
sarily varied  according  to  the  repute  of  the  master.  At  one 
music  school — and  music  was  an  essential  part  of  education — 
the  master  had  only  two  pupils.  But  he  naturally  had  statues 
of  the  appropriate  gods,  to  wit,  the  nine  Muses  and  also  Apollo, 
the  god  of  music.  When  asked  how  many  persons  were  at 
his  school,  he  therefore  replied,  "  By  the  help  of  the  gods, 
twelve." 

Education  at  Athens  was  not  undertaken  by  the  state,  nor 
was  it  absolutely  compulsory  from  a  legal  point  of  view.  The 
state  expected,  and  public  opinion  insisted,  that  all  male 
citizens  should  be  educated,  but  the  only  legal  measure  bearing 
upon  the  matter  was  the  provision  that  a  son  to  whom  an 
education  had  not  been  given  was  not  bound — as  others  were — 
to  support  his  father  in  old  age.  And  here  one  cannot  refrain 
from  drawing  attention  to  the  something  superior  in  the  Greek 
mind  which  caused  the  Greeks  to  set  a  value  on  education,  and 
to  direct  it  with  an  intelligence,  unknown  to  any  ancient  people 
before  them.  In  this  they  were  altogether  original,  and  modern 
Europe  owes  them  more  than  we  can  now  estimate. 

Their  scheme  embraced  reading  and  writing,  literary  ap- 
preciation, music  both  vocal  and  instrumental,  physical  training, 
and,  somewhat  later,  towards  the  end  of  our  period,  arithmetic 
and  drawing.  Swimming  was  also  regularly  taught.  They 
had  no  thought  of  education  serving  as  a  means  to  technical 
skill  or  a  livelihood ;  they  thought  of  it  as  a  means  to  self- 
culture  and  worthy  citizenship.  To  train  the  intellect,  the 
passions,  and  the  body  was  the  aim  of  Athenian  culture.  It  is 
on  this  course  that  Lysimachus  now  enters. 

He  will  begin  with  the  teacher  of  ABC;  and  there  in  his 
class  he  will  learn  his  letters  and  chant  his  b-a  ba,  b-e  be,  and 
the  rest,  until  he  can  read.  His  master  will  then  teach  him  to 
write,  tracing  the  letters  faintly  for  him  to  go  over  and  deepen, 
and  guiding  his  hand.  This  will  first  be  done  on  those  waxed 
tablets  with  a  raised  rim  which  answer  to  our  slate,  until  the 
pupil  is  proficient  enough  to  be  trusted  with  the  more  expensive 
papyrus-paper  and  the  split  reed  which  serves  as  a  pen.  On 
the  tablet  he  scratches  in  the  stiffened  wax  with  a  pointed  style 


122 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


OHAK 


or  metal  instrument,  very  much  as  if  one  wrote  on  thickly 
buttered  bread  with  a  small  stiletto  (Fig.  53). 

He  will  not,  we  gather,  be  encouraged  either  to  love  or  to 
respect  this  elementary  teacher.  The  stick  and  the  strap  were 
much  in  evidence,  and,  in  any  case,  to  teach  ABC  was  regarded 
as  the  most  miserable  of  occupations.  It  was  often  the  last 
resort  of  persons  who  could  do  nothing  else.  A  proverb  went 
concerning  the  man  who  had  "gone  under,"  that  "  he  is  either 
dead  or  teaching  ABC."  The  father  of  Aeschines  the  orator 
kept  such  a  school,  and  Demosthenes  taunts  the  son  with  having 
to  prepare  the  ink  and  sponge  the  forms  and  sweep  the  waiting- 
room. 

To  such  a  school  Lysimachus  will  march  unwillingly  in  the 
very  early  morning  ;  at  sunrise,  in  fact.  His  father  will  pay 
the  fees  on  the  last  day  of  every  month.  There  will  be 
occasional  school-festivals  in  honour  of  the  Muses  or  of  Hermes, 
the  god  of  eloquence,  at  which  the  pupils  will  contribute 
towards  a  sacrifice  and  an  entertainment.  There  will  also  be 
holidays,  particularly  in  the  early  spring.  It  is  interesting  to 
know  from  Theophrastus  that  there  were  very  mean  men  at 
Athens,  and  of  a  type  of  these  he  says,  "  He  is  the  sort  of  man 
not  to  send  his  children  to  school  when  it  is  the  Festival  of  the 
Muses,  but  to  say  they  are  unwell,  so  that  they  may  avoid 
subscribing."  The  avaricious  man  also,  "  when  his  sons, 
through  illness,  do  not  go  to  school  all  the  month,  is  the 
sort  of  man  to  deduct  from  the  fee  in  proportion." 

The  boy  can  now  read  and  write.  He  is  next  made  to  read 
the  poets,  particularly  Homer,  and  to  learn  passages,  if  not  the 
whole,  by  heart.  While  reciting  them,  the  pupil  stands  up 
and  delivers  with  intelligence  and  expression.  His  master  sits 
in  the  chair,  which  was  called  cathedra,  and  which  has  given 
vogue  to  our  expression  ex  cathedra  for  the  dogmatic  utterances 
of  a  master. 

We  are  fortunate  in  possessing  an  illustration  of  the  whole 
business,  from  an  Attic  vase  of  the  painter  Duris.  In  the 
upper  of  the  two  scenes,  one  boy  is  singing  to  the  flute, 
another  is  having  an  exercise  corrected  ;  in  the  lower  scene 
one  youth  is  learning  the  fingering  of  the  lyre,  another  is 
repeating  verse :  in  both  cases  the  paedagogus  is  seated  on  the 
right,  keeping  watch. 

In  Xenophon  a  character  remarks  that  he  "  can  still  repeat 


BOYHOOD— EDUCATION  AND  TRAINING  123 


all  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  by  heart."  The  aim  of  all  this,  be  it 
observed,  is  to  cultivate  the  character  by  the  familiar  con- 
templation of  great  examples  and  high  deliverances. 

Next  his  musical  education  begins,  generally  about  the 


Figs.  53,  54.— School  scene  ;  vase  by  Duris. 


thirteenth  year.  To  the  Greeks  the  musical  education  for  a 
gentleman  means  singing  and  playing  upon  the  lyre.  The  flute 
or  clarionet  is  commonly  left  to  professionals,  for  not  only  does 
it  distort  the  face,  it  is  also  too  orgiastic.  For,  strange  as  it  may 
appear  to  this  enlightened  age,  the  chief  aim  of  musical  teach- 
ing at  Athens  was  the  proper  cultivation  of  the  feelings.  Of 
course  it  was  socially  agreeable  to  be  able  to  play  and  sing,  but, 


124 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  IX 


chiefly,  the  effect  sought  was  an  effect  on  mariners  and  conduct. 
There  was  no  intention  of  turning  out  professionals,  but  of 
edifying  the  inner  man.  Side  by  side  with  playing  upon  the 
lyre  the  pupils  appropriately  read  and  learned  lyric  poetry. 

Meanwhile  his  physical  training  has  proceeded,  under  special 
teachers,  in  what  were  known  as  the  wrestling- schools,  the 
chief  exercises  as  yet  being  in  wrestling,  running,  and  leaping. 
Almost  all  boys  learned  to  dance  and  to  swim.  It  may  be 
remarked  that  the  master  in  physical  culture  used  the  whip  or 
the  cane  without  stint,  and  while  an  adult  Athenian  citizen 
regarded  it  as  an  intolerable  outrage  to  be  struck  or  assaulted, 
he  took  all  this  corporal  chastisement  in  his  young  days  as  a 
matter  of  course. 

At  about  sixteen,  education  in  the  ordinary  sense  is  over. 
For  boys  of  the  poorer  classes  their  work  now  begins,  if  it  has 
not  begun  long  ago.  Those  better  circumstanced  mostly 
proceed  for  two  years  more  to  something  which  corresponds  to 
our  Arts  course  at  the  University,  combined  with  a  severe 
course  of  gymnastics.  The  old  tutor-slave  is  dispensed  with, 
and  they  betake  themselves,  on  the  one  hand  to  professors  of 
rhetoric  and  general  culture,  on  the  other  to  trainers  in  wrest- 
ling, boxing,  spear-throwing,  and,  in  many  cases,  riding.  We 
hear  of  fees  of  £40 — equal  to  £100  or  more  to-day — as  payment 
for  a  full  course  in  practical  eloquence  ;  and  we  also  hear  of 
poor  men  who,  like  the  Scotch  or  American  student,  would 
work  for  hire  in  mills  or  elsewhere  at  nights  in  order  to  obtain 
the  means  to  attend  philosophic  instruction  in  the  daytime. 

Two  years  pass  in  this  way,  and  Lysimachus  is  of  age.  He 
can  read  and  write,  sing  and  dance,  play  upon  the  lyre,  swim, 
ride,  wrestle,  box,  run,  and  leap;  he  can  understand  and  quote 
Homer,  Hesiod,  and  the  lyric  poets.  He  knows  how  to  carry 
himself  in  all  sorts  of  societies.  He  is  what  was  called  kalos 
kagathos,  "  a  fine  and  good"  stamp  of  man. 

Being  first  enrolled  as  a  citizen  on  the  records,  he  is  called 
upon  to  undergo  his  military  training.  Along  with  all  other 
young  men  of  the  same  year — who  may  perhaps  number  about 
a  thousand — he  is  marched  to  a  temple,  where  he  takes  an  oath 
that  he  will  not  disgrace  his  arms  or  desert  his  comrades  in 
battle,  and  that  he  will  obey  orders,  keep  the  laws  and  assist 
in  their  being  kept,  and  defend  and  honour  the  shrines.  Clad 
in  a  regulation  mantle  and  hat  he  becomes  a  probationary 


Fig.  55.— Discobolus  of  Myron. 


125 


12G 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  IX. 


soldier.  He  is  marched  down  to  the  harbour-town  of  Peiraeus, 
where  he  serves  in  garrison  duty,  receiving  6d.  a  day  (perhaps 
we  may  call  it  Is.  3d.),  and  messing  with  perhaps  a  hundred 
others  of  his  tribe.  Here  he  is  under  careful  moral  supervision, 
and  is  drilled  and  trained  in  the  use  of  weapons,  being 
apparently  meanwhile  considerably  knocked  about.  He  is  then 
marched  back  to  Athens,  where  an  assembly  is  held  in  the  great- 
theatre  ;  he  goes  through  his  exercises,  is  presented  with  a 
spear  and  shield,  and  is  sent  to  patrol  the  frontiers,  receiving 
instruction  in  marching,  digging  trenches,  fortifying  and  con- 
ducting siege-works. 

Then  he  returns  to  Athens  to  do  as  he  will,  generally  to 
sow  a  considerable  amount  of  wild  oats,  but  a  highly  capable 
man  and  a  highly  interesting  one. 


CHAPTER  X 


ARMY  AND  NAVY 

Our  Athenian  is  liable  to  military  service  from  the  age  of 
eighteen  to  sixty,  although  men  over  fifty  will  hardly  be  called 
out  except  in  the  last  resort.  He  has  learned  his  drill  between 
the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty,  including  all  the  simple 
forming  of  line,  wheeling,  forming  column,  hollow  square,  and 
the  like.  There  is  nothing  which  can  be  justly  called  a 
"  standing  "  army.  But  war-time  comes — indeed  it  was  pretty 
nearly  always  coming — and  Lysimachus,  going  down  to  the 
market-place,  finds  a  notice  posted  on  a  white  board  to  the 
effect  that  all  men  on  the  roll  up  to  the  age  of  thirty  are  to 
muster  in  the  Agora,  or  in  the  precincts  of  some  temple,  or  at 
the  theatre,  perhaps  the  day  after  to-morrow,  and  that  they 
are  to  bring  their  weapons  and  armour,  together  with  a  supply 
of  food  for  three  days.  There  was  no  free  commissariat  in  the 
Athenian  army.  The  infantryman  receives  daily  pay  from  two 
obols,  or  a  silver  threepenny-piece,  in  the  lowest  cases,  up  to  a 
drachma,  or  silver  franc,  in  the  highest.  Out  of  this  he  is 
expected  to  buy  his  own  supplies,  and,  since  Greek  campaigning 
distances  are  very  short,  a  stock  for  three  days  is  considered 
enough  to  begin  with.  The  ordinary  rank-and-file  will  put  in 
their  knapsacks  a  packet  of  meal,  some  salt,  and  a  supply  of 
onions  and  garlic. 

A  man  of  average  means  serves  as  a  heavy-armed  infantry- 
man. He  wears  no  particular  uniform,  but  must  possess  a  set 
of  armour,  which  he  supplies  for  himself,  and  which  may  differ 
a  good  deal  from  that  of  the  next  man  in  the  ranks.  This 
includes  padded  bronze  greaves  on  the  legs,  a  corselet  or 
breastplate  consisting  of  leather  plated  with  bronze,  a  bronze 

127 


128  LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS  chap. 

shield,  round  or  oval,  and  a  bronze  helmet  with  a  neck-piece 
and  short  movable  cheek-pieces  and  adorned  with  a  plume  or 
crest,  and  sometimes  with  two.  From  the  waist  a  leather 
garment  is  worn,  falling  in  a  fringe  of  thongs  over  the  hips,  to 


Fia.  56.— Greek  soldier  and  Persian. 


protect  the  lower  portion  of  the  body.  The  corselet,  in  two 
halves,  which  are  laced  together  in  front  and  possess  flaps 
coming  over  the  shoulders,  is  put  above  this,  and  a  plated  belt 
goes  round  and  braces  the  whole  together.  By  his  left  side  he 
wears  a  short  sword,  and  in  his  right  hand  is  a  long  lance  of 
ashwood  tipped  with  steel. 


X 


ARMY  AND  NAVY 


rz9 


The  Outlanders  also  could  be  called  upon  to  serve  in  this 
style,  and,  including  these,  Athens  could  perhaps  at  a  pinch 
turn  out  20,000  such  men  as  those  described.  But,  besides, 
there  are  the  persons  too  poor  to  supply  such  an  equipment,  and 


Fig.  57. — Helmets  ;  from  coins. 


these  are  satisfied  with  a  light  shield,  often  of  wood  or  wicker- 
work,  a  sword,  and  a  javelin  ;  or  they  may  keep  in  the  rear, 
armed  with  no  shield  at  all,  but  simply  with  bow  and  arrows, 
sling,  or  light  spear.  A  few  cavalry,  perhaps  a  thousand, 
complete  the  army.    These  are  men  well-to-do,  who  can  supply 


Fig.  58.  —Putting  on  corselet ;  warriors  arming. 


and  manage  their  own  horse  but  are  allowed  a  franc  a  day. 
Unhappily,  during  the  latter  portion  of  our  period,  the 
Athenians  had  begun  to  engage  mercenaries  to  do  their  fighting, 
and  this  was  with  them,  as  everywhere,  the  beginning  of  the 
end. 

Well,  Lysimachus  is  in  the  heavy-armed  infantry.    He  will 

K 


130 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


not  find  the  discipline  very  strict,  according  to  our  notions. 
But  to  fail  to  put  in  an  appearance,  to  desert  his  post,  or  to 
show  cowardice,  meant  that  he  was  liable  to  a  prosecution 
which  might  disgrace  him  and  strip  him  of  all  his  citizen 
rights.  We  need  not  follow  him  into  the  details  of  a  battle. 
When  he  meets  the  enemy  he  will  probably  form  one  of  a  line 
eight  deep,  he  will  hear  the  trumpet  sound  the  charge,  he  will 


Fig.  59. — Armourer  :  Thetis  receiving  the  weapons  of  Achilles. 


rush  forward  at  the  double  with  a  cheer,  and — let  us  hope  he 
will  get  safely  back  to  Athens  in  due  time. 

But  the  chief  strength  of  Athens  lies  in  her  navy.  She 
possesses  in  the  docks  at  Peiraeus  between  300  and  400  of 
those  ships  of  war  which  perhaps  might  better  be  called  galleys. 
They  are  about  120  or  130  feet  long,  about  17  wide,  and  have 
a  draught  of  6  or  7  feet.  The  propulsion  of  these  vessels  is 
chiefly  by  rowing. 

There  is,  it  is  true,  a  mainmast  with  one  large  and  one 


X 


ARMY  AND  NAVY 


131 


small  square  sail,  and  also  a  foremast  with  a  small  sail,  but 
these  will  be  removed  before  a  battle,  and  in  voyaging  are 
mainly  regarded  as  accessories.  Such  ships  are  built  for  speed, 
and,  from  their  structure,  are  sometimes  called  "  long "  ships. 
They  are  easily  drawn  up  on 
land  or  up  slips  into  the  ship- 
houses.  Being  propelled  by 
oarsmen  who  sit  in  three  tiers 
obliquely  one  slightly  above 
another,  their  common  name  is 
"  three-bankers."  Other  vessels, 
of  one,  two,  four,  and  five 
banks,  are  met  with,  but  are 
rare.  When  turned  out  in 
readiness  for  war,  a  three - 
banker's  crew  amounts  to  about 
200  men,  of  whom  174  are  oars- 
men, ten  or  a  dozen  are  marines, 
who  are  to  fight  in  full  armour  PlG.  60 -Armed  soidi^T the  parting  cup. 
on  the  deck,  and  the  rest  are 

boatswain  and  petty  officers,  a  first  officer  (or  "  officer  of  the 
foredeck "),  a  steersman  or  navigating  officer,  the  commander, 


Fig.  61.— Trireme  ;  from  a  relief. 


and  a  few  sailors  to  manage  the  tackling.  When  fully  manned 
and  strained  to  its  utmost,  the  navy  will  thus  require  over 
50,000  men  to  serve  at  the  oars  alone,  and,  since  no  large 
proportion  of  these  can  be  citizens,  and  since  the  work  is  heavy, 


132 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Outlanders,  hired  mercenaries,  and  even  slaves  are  employed 
and  paid  by  the  state.  The  officers  and  marines  are  of  course 
citizens.  If  citizens  are  ordered  to  row,  they  must  perform 
the  duty ;  but  in  such  cases  they  would  generally  serve  in  the 
topmost  tier,  to  which  higher  pay  was  attached,  inasmuch  as 
the  oars  were  longer  and  the  best  men  were  required  in  that 
row.  The  average  pay  for  the  whole  ship  is  three  obols — 
perhaps  equal  in  purchasing  power  to  one  shilling  of  our  money 
— per  man  per  day.  It  will  be  well  to  give  here  an  illustration 
of  the  rowers  on  their  seats,  according  to  the  common,  but 
rather  doubtful,  theory.  One  tier  is  placed  two  feet  lower  than 
the  next  and  one  foot  in  front  of  it,  and,  when  the  men  pull, 
those  in  the  lower  row  fall  back  between  the  knees  of  those  in 


Fig.  62. — Rowers  (conjectural). 


the  higher.  The  boatswain  sets  the  time,  and  a  flute  helps  and 
inspirits  the  men  to  keep  it.  The  time  of  stroke  and  recovery 
are  marked  with  the  cries  op,  o-dp,  and  the  boatswain  will  now 
and  again  give  the  order  to  "  lay  on  "  or  "  put  into  it."  The 
men  themselves  have  also  a  sort  of  "  yo-heave-oo  "  in  the  shape 
of  "  rlmp-pa-pai."  When  speed  is  required  in  action  or  for 
flight,  the  whole  174  are  at  work;  on  an  ordinary  voyage  each 
tier  is  divided  into  three  watches,  and  these  take  the  rowing  in 
turns. 

At  the  stern  of  the  vessel  is  a  raised  quarter-deck  with 
officers'  cabin  and  flagstaff.  Behind  the  bows  is  another  raised 
deck,  and  from  under  them,  just  beneath  the  water,  there  projects 
a  mass  of  sharp  timber  shod  with  iron  or  bronze,  with  which 
the  enemy's  vessel  is  to  be  rammed  and  sunk.  A  favourite 
Athenian  manoeuvre  is  to  charge  full  speed  along  an  enemy's 
ship,  draw  in  the  oars  on  that  side,  crash  through  the  enemy's 


X 


ARMY  AND  NAVY 


133 


oars  and  break  them  off  short,  then  make  a  circle  and  ram  her 
in  the  stern  or  the  unprotected  side. 

Now  it  happens  that  our  friend  Pasicles  may  become 
"commander"  of  such  a  ship  in  spite  of  himself.  He  is  a  man 
of  means,  and  he  will  at  some  time  find  himself  called  upon  to 
undertake  one  of  those  "  public  burdens  "  which  take  the  place 
of  direct  taxation.  The  state  possesses  a  ship  and  rigging  in 
the  dock ;  it  provides  and  pays  the  crews ;  but  beyond  this 
Pasicles — whose  turn  on  the  roster  has  come — finds  himself, 
either  alone  or  in  a  syndicate  of  others,  put  to  the  expense  of 
getting  the  ship  ready  for  sea,  of  keeping  it  for  a  year  or  other 
period  in  good  repair,  and  of  handing  it  and  its  rigging  over  at 
the  end  of  that  time  in  good  order  and  condition.  That  is  one 
way  of  seeing  to  the  efficiency  of  the  navy.  There  is  a  Dock- 
yard Board  which  looks  sharply  after  these  duties,  and  Pasicles 
bears  his  burden  as  a  matter  of  course  and  looks  as  cheerful  as 
possible.  His  title  is  "  commander  of  a  three-banker,"  although 
in  all  matters  of  mere  navigation  he  is  of  course  guided  by  the 
sailing-master,  and  in  matters  of  war  by  the  orders  and  signals 
of  his  admiral.    And  so  engaged,  we  will  leave  him. 


CHAPTER  XI 


RELIGION 

It  is  time  now  to  look  at  the  religious  side  of  Athenian  life. 

A  clear  and  accurate  description  of  Athenian  religion  would 
hardly  be  a  possibility,  even  if  volumes  were  devoted  to  the 
subject.  In  a  sketch  like  ours  we  must  be  satisfied  if  we  can 
state  fairly  its  general  character  and  its  chief  phenomena.  If 
the  representative  Athenian  had  possessed  any  definite  notion 
of  the  precise  number  of  the  gods,  or  of  their  functions  and 
relations  to  each  other,  or  of  the  principles  upon  which  they 
acted  in  dealing  with  mankind  or  letting  mankind  alone,  then 
our  task  would  be  easier.  But  in  point  of  fact  classical  Athens 
had  no  formulated  theology ;  it  learned  no  express  creed ;  it 
possessed  nothing  corresponding  to  our  Church,  or  Bible,  or 
Catechism,  or  preachers,  or  Doctors  of  Divinity.  And  even  if 
it  had  possessed  these,  there  would  still  remain  the  question 
how  far  the  state  enforced  the  recognised  doctrines,  how  far 
individuals  really  accepted  them,  and  to  what  extent,  if  they 
acknowledged  the  theory,  they  carried  it  into  practice. 

Even  for  our  own  day  we  should  find  it  difficult  to  be  very 
positive  as  to  the  exact  nature  and  reality  of  religious  belief 
around  us.  We  have  the  sincere  and  practical  religious  believer, 
the  man  who  perfunctorily  assents  to  a  religious  system  and 
its  ceremonies,  the  merely  superstitious  man,  the  thoughtful 
and  conscientious  doubter,  the  indifferentist,  and  the  more  or  less 
aggressive  atheist.  During  the  Athenian  period  which  we  are 
considering  you  might  have  found  each  and  all  of  these,  and 
the  only  one  who  ran  into  any  danger  was  the  aggressive  or 
obstreperous  person  who  interfered  with  the  beliefs  and  practices 
of  others.    His  conduct,  at  least,  was  palpably  anti-social. 

134 


CHAP.  XI 


RELIGION 


135 


If  we  superficially  survey  what  is  known  as  Greek  mythology, 
and  do  not  distinguish  the  Homeric  world  from  the  Athenian 
world,  nor  Plato  from  the  Athenian  man  in  the  street,  we  shall 
naturally  be  amazed  at  the  intellectual  and  moral  inconsistency 
which  appears  in  the  religion  of  men  so  keen-witted  as  the 
people  of  Athens.  Do  our  friends  Pasicles  and  Lysimachus 
really  believe  in  all  those  male  and  female  deities  of  Lempriere's 
Dictionary,  with  all  the  flagrant  failings  and  passions  which 
the  contradictory  legends  attribute  to  them  %  Does  any  power 
insist  that  they  shall  believe,  or  pretend  to  believe,  in  them  ? 
And  how  does  such  a  confused  and  unworthy  theology  come  to 
exist  ?    And  how  does  it  operate  on  conduct  ? 

Let  us  attempt  a  succinct  answer  to  these  questions,  though 
not  in  the  same  order.  And,  first,  let  us  premise  that  a  vast 
deal  which  appears  in  the  dictionaries  of  mythology  as  "  Greek  " 
was  practically  unknown  at  Athens.  Nevertheless,  keeping 
to  that  part  which  does  apply,  w^e  must  begin  by  admitting 
that  the  religious  condition  of  classical  Athens  did  undoubtedly 
lag  behind  its  intellect  and  its  social  civilisation.  Nothing  is 
so  conservative  as  an  inherited  religion,  and  the  religion  of 
Athens  was  an  inheritance.  We  have  already  observed  that 
the  classical  Greek  was  the  outcome  of  a  blending  of  northern 
invaders,  akin  to  the  Teutons  and  Celts,  with  earlier  denizens 
of  the  country,  who  were  of  a  quite  alien  Mediterranean  stock. 
Greek  religion  was  equally  the  outcome  of  a  blending  of  the 
two.  Hence  many  of  its  inconsistent  and  even  incompatible 
elements.  In  religious  matters  the  average  mind  shrinks  from 
inquiry  or  logical  scrutiny  until  the  last  possible  moment. 
Here  we  have  two  early  races,  one  directing  its  thoughts  and 
worship  chiefly,  though  not  solely,  to  powerful  and  compara- 
tively genial  beings  in  the  skies,  with  nothing  uncanny  about 
them,  but  with  a  set  of  good  robust  human  virtues  and  human 
vices ;  the  other  turning  its  worship  chiefly  to  powerful  but 
ungenial  beings  of  the  earth  or  underneath  it,  and  endowed 
with  distinctly  mysterious  and  uncanny  natures  and  attributes. 
Combine  these  two  stocks,  interpenetrate  and  confuse  these 
beliefs,  as  they  pass  with  the  generations  from  parents  to 
children  and  from  nurses  to  their  charges,  and  you  get,  not 
only  a  set  of  deities  in  a  world  aloft,  or  "  Olympus,"  and  a  set 
of  daemonic  agencies  acting  from  an  underground  world,  or 
"  Hades,"  but  also  a  hopeless  confusion  of  their  names  and 


136 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


functions.  Date  it  all  from  that  very  early  time  when  man 
had  no  scientific  understanding  of  the  operations  of  nature,  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  sun  rose  or  the  buds  appeared  in  the 
spring,  or  of  the  reason  why  wine  intoxicates  or.  diseases  come, 
or  why  there  is  thunder  or  earthquake,  and  when  they  con- 
sequently invented  divine  agencies  and  concocted  legends  more 
or  less  ingenious  to  explain  such  things.  Next  imagine  such 
divine  agencies  becoming  more  and  more  personified,  and  the 
legends  more  and  more  elaborated  and  poetised,  but  nowhere 
any  systematic  list  of  gods  or  of  their  precise  powers,  or  of  the 
legends  which  one  ought  to  believe  concerning  each. 

As  refinement  of  society  and  intellect  proceeds,  the  sculptor 
and  painter  step  in,  and  the  outward  representations  of  the 
higher  or  more  beneficent  divinities  grow  into  majesty  and 
beauty,  while  the  lower  and  malevolent  agencies  are  made 
correspondingly  unlovely,  unless  they  are  kept  in  the  back- 
ground altogether.  Now  take  an  Athenian  child,  who  begins 
by  listening  to  the  "  old  wives'  tales "  of  his  nurse ;  then  is 
present  at  domestic  rites  and  sacrifices,  which  impress  him 
without  his  understanding  them ;  afterwards  learns  his  old- 
fashioned  Homer  and  his  poets,  before  he  has  any  notion  of 
questioning  their  theology  ;  next  moves  about  among  altars 
and  splendid  temples  and  statues  of  Zeus,  Athena,  Dionysus, 
and  many  another  divinity ;  is  later  on  initiated  into  awesome 
mysteries,  which  are  addressed  to  his  emotions  and  not  to  his 
reason  ;  and  is  at  all  times  trained  to  undertake  no  enterprise, 
public  or  private,  without  first  consulting  the  will  of  the  gods, 
praying  to  them,  and  sacrificing  to  them. 

There  we  have  the  situation  of  our  friends  Pasicles  and 
Lysimachus.  To  their  religious  condition  there  have  contributed 
the  effects  of  legends,  poetry,  and  ceremonies  in  childhood, 
and  of  public  practices,  art,  and  ritual  in  maturity.  But,  being 
reasonable  men,  they  will  practically  discredit  the  absurd  and 
immoral  elements  in  mythology  ;  they  will  believe  that  the 
Olympian  gods  are  as  just  and  wise  as  they  are  powerful ;  they 
will  laugh  at  the  grosser  superstitions  of  fear ;  but  they  will, 
nevertheless,  perform  their  rites  and  ceremonies,  whether  to 
the  gods  above  or  to  the  powers  below,  with  all  decorum  and 
without  question.  To  them  Zeus  will,  in  a  general  way, 
represent  a  real  all-ruler,  Athena  a  real  goddess  of  arts  and 
wisdom  who  specially  protects  the  city  of  Athens,  Poseidon  a 


XI 


RELIGION 


137 


real  power  controlling  the  sea  and  causing  earthquakes.  Of 
these  and  other  deities  their  conception  will  be  approximately 
that  which  the  artists  have  embodied  in  their  statues  or  which 
painters  have  depicted  on  walls  or  on  vases.  They  will  believe 
that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  live  in  the  under-world  a  dull  and 
unenviable  existence,  which  is  a  dim  copy  of  life  on  earth  ; 
that  the  very  impious  are  punished  there  in  "  Tartarus/'  a 
deep  place  of  torment ;  and  that  the  very  pious  enjoy  a  special 
and  more  attractive  abode  in  the  Elysian  fields.  They  will  pay 
respect  to  the  departed,  who  are  still  very  able,  and  ready,  to 
make  or  mar  in  human  life. 

We  may  take  these  two  citizens  as  representing  the  typical 
or  middle  point  in  Athenian  religion.  On  opposite  sides  of 
them  lie  two  other  classes  of  persons.  On  the  one  side  are  the 
ignorant  and  vulgar,  or  the  constitutionally  superstitious.  To 
these  all  the  legends  are  credible,  simply  because  they  exist. 
Not  only  do  they  not  question  the  actual  existence  of  the  gods; 
they  do  not*  pretend  to  select,  nor  to  exercise  any  reason  in 
respect  of  details.  Moreover,  they  have  a  distinct  leaning  to 
the  uncanny  side  of  religion  ;  the  more  strange  or  secret  its 
ceremonies,  the  more  corybantic  or  emotional,  the  better  they 
like  them;  they  see  omens  and  daemonic  influences  everywhere; 
they  are  always  consulting  soothsayers — at  threepence  a 
consultation — or  performing  rites  of  exorcism.  Meanwhile,  on 
the  other  side  are  the  thinkers,  whether  professed  philosophers, 
poets,  or  simply  vigorous  reasoners.  In  the  minds  of  these 
there  are  the  gravest  doubts  as  to  who  the  gods  are,  how  many 
they  are,  whether  they  exist  at  all,  and  to  what  extent  they 
interfere  with  human  action.  They  are  in  doubt  as  to  the 
under-world,  as  to  whether  death  is  a  perpetual  sleep,  or 
complete  annihilation,  or  an  after-life.  Some  of  them  are 
practically  monotheists;  some  are  disbelievers  in  the  intervention 
of  the  gods  in  human  affairs  ;  but,  all  alike,  these  will  have  it 
that,  if  gods  there  are,  they  are  not  the  faulty  human  divinities 
of  the  old  women's  tales  or  of  Homer.  These  men  often  know 
something  of  physical  philosophy ;  they  can  explain  some 
phenomena  of  nature  and  guess  at  others.  They  are  the 
sceptics,  agnostics,  and  freethinkers  of  the  day,  and  their 
numbers  are  certainly  not  inconsiderable. 

But  we  are  concerned  with  the  average  representative 
Athenian,  and  to  him  we  will  confine  ourselves. 


138 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Pasicles  would  tell  you  that  in  the  vague  aloft  there  are 
certain  deities,  male  and  female,  who  are  to  be  honoured  with 
temples  and  sacrifices  and  prayers  in  return  for  their  favours 
and  services  to  mankind ;  and  of  these  he  will,  like  any  Greek, 
name  first  and  foremost  Zeus.  Being  an  Athenian,  he  will 
name  in  the  second  place  Athena.  But  there  is  a  long  list  of 
others — Apollo,  Dionysus,  Poseidon,  Aphrodite,  and  so  on — 
some  more  prominent,  some  less  so,  and  some  hardly  considered 
at  all.  He  will  next  tell  you,  though  with  less  willingness,  that 
there  are  powers  of  the  earth,  who  are  apt  to  be  jealous  and 
vengeful,  and  whom  he  soothes  with  offerings  on  special  days, 
but  to  whom  he  does  not  build  temples  or  erect  statues.  If 
you  ask  him  why  he  worships  the  upper  gods,  he  will  say 
frankly  that  he  desires  to  gain  their  help  and  favour  in  the 
way  of  health,  wealth,  success,  and  happiness.  If  you  ask  him 
why  he  makes  offerings  to  the  lower  powers  and  deities,  he  will 
reply  that  it  is  because  they  demand  such  things,  and  to  neglect 
them  is  to  run  the  risk  of  dire  visitations  in  mind,  body,  or 
estate. 

If  you  watch  him  praying,  you  will  see  that  to  the  upper 
gods  he  brings  a  victim  of  white  colour ;  that  in  prayer  he  lifts 
his  face  and  the  palms  of  his  hands  with  some  appearance  of 
brightness  and  confidence ;  that  if  he  burns  a  portion  of  the 
sacrifice  upon  the  altar  he  makes  a  feast  upon  the  rest;  whereas 
to  the  lower  gods  he  bends  his  face  and  hands  earthward  in 
gloom,  and  of  the  victim — which  in  this  case  is  black — he  will 
touch  nothing,  but  leave  it  to  be  wholly  consumed.  To  the 
Olympian  gods  he  will  sacrifice  in  the  morning ;  to  the  nether 
gods  it  will  be  towards  evening. 

He  does  not  know  that  he  is  the  product  of  a  gradual 
mixture  of  two  old  religions — one  a  worship  of  the  powers  of 
nature  and  their  personifications,  the  other  a  worship  of 
ancestors  and  their  ghosts. 

In  the  next  place,  what  relation  is  there  between  his  worship 
of  the  gods  and  his  moral  conduct  ?  Almost  none.  So  long 
as  his  behaviour  to  the  superhuman  powers  is  ceremonially 
correct,  that  is  to  say,  so  long  as  he  performs  his  prayers  and 
sacrifices,  joins  in  the  festivals,  and  comports  himself  reverently 
when  mentioning  the  deities  or  when  in  their  sacred  precincts, 
he  is  fulfilling  all  the  duties  demanded  by  religion.    His  moral 


XI 


RELIGION 


139 


conduct  is  determined  by  the  laws  of  the  land  and  the  tradition 
of  society,  not  by  any  code  of  divine  ordinances.  Lysimachus 
does  not  ask,  "What  does  Zeus  or  Athena  command'?"  but 
"  What  does  the  law  command  ?  What  did  my  parents  have 
me  taught  ?  What  will  Pasicles  think  ? "  In  other  words, 
sound  morality  is  a  social  virtue  rather  than  a  religious  virtue. 
It  is  quite  true  that,  according  to  the  higher  minds  of  Athens, 
Zeus  punished  the  man  who  broke  an  oath  or  violated  manifest 
natural  claims ;  it  is  also  true  that  to  those  better  minds  the 
gods  looked  with  favour  on  the  man  of  pure  hands  and 
conscience ;  but,  after  all,  the  actual  standard  of  purity, 
whether  of  hand  or  conscience,  was  the  standard  erected  by 
society  and  the  law,  not  an  ideal  standard  known  by  revelation. 
The  gods  were  the  protectors  of  human  relations,  not  original 
fountains  of  abstract  morality.  The  fact  is  that  the  better 
Athenian  minds  were  trying  their  best  to  bring  the  prehistoric 
gods  up  to  the  higher  standard  of  the  morality  of  themselves, 
which  had  been  evolved  by  their  civilisation.  So  true  is  it 
that  "man  makes  gods  in  his  own  image." 

Meanwhile  our  average  respectable  citizen  looked  to  his 
fellowmen  to  dictate  and  judge  his  morality.  The  gods  would 
be  satisfied  with  a  proper  degree  of  respect,  and,  for  anything 
beyond  the  minimum  of  such  respect,  our  citizen  looked  for  a 
quid  pro  quo  in  the  shape  of  direct  favours. 

We  may,  of  course,  suppose  that  no  Athenian  could  climb 
the  steps  of  the  Acropolis,  pass  through  its  majestic  Propylaea, 
survey  and  enter  the  splendid  and  impressive  Parthenon,  and 
gaze  upon  the  colossal  statue  of  the  Maiden  Goddess,  without 
feeling  that  it  must  be  his  best  self  that  approached  so  august 
a  deity.  But  his  best  self  meant  something  which  was  not  to 
be  found  in  any  inspired  Bible,  nor  was  delivered  to  the 
emotions  by  any  body  of  preachers,  but  which  was  set  forth  by 
the  laws  and  by  good  form.  There  never  were  minds  more 
free  from  the  anguish  of  moral  yearnings,  or  ideals  of  self- 
mortification,  than  those  of  classical  Athens. 

It  is  in  keeping  with  this  attitude  that  religion  at  Athens  was 
made  a  matter  of  state  and  put  under  the  general  supervision 
of  an  officer  elected  annually.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  an 
established  Church  or  an  organised  priesthood.  There  were 
simply  independent  temples,  altars,  and  festivals  of  a  number 


140 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


of  gods,  each  of  whom  had  his  appointed  minister  or  ministers, 
whose  concern  it  was  to  conduct  his  sacrifices,  direct  his  festivals, 
look  after  his  temple,  and  guard  his  property.  Some  of  these 
ministers  (if  we  use  the  word  "  priest "  it  may  be  misleading, 
since  he  was  rather  a  public  officer  of  a  comparatively  lay 
character)  were  hereditary,  some  were  specially  elected  by  the 
people,  some  were  chosen  by  lot,  whether  for  life  or  for  a  term. 
The  only  necessary  qualifications  were  that  the  minister  should 
be  of  unblemished  body  and  character ;  otherwise  he  would  be 
unwelcome  to  the  god  whom  he  was  to  serve.  He  would  have 
to  understand  the  ritual  belonging  to  particular  shrines  and 
occasions,  but  he  received  no  special  training  beyond  this. 
There  was  no  theology,  no  preaching.  He  was  not  a  clergyman, 
had  no  cure  of  souls,  no  parish,  no  duty  of  moral  instruction  or 
similar  responsibility.  He  had  also  nothing  to  do  with  the 
minister  of  any  other  god  or  shrine.  The  ministers  were, 
moreover,  of  both  sexes,  and  in  most  cases  celibacy  was  not 
required  of  either.  They  were  public  officers,  and,  as  such, 
enjoyed  a  respect  which  was  naturally  increased  by  their 
association  with  the  god.  At  the  larger  temples  the  priest  or 
priestess — as  we  may  now  venture  to  call  them  without 
misunderstanding — was  furnished  with  slaves  or  servants,  who 
were  paid  by  the  state,  or  from  endowments,  to  sweep  the  build- 
ings, act  as  beadles,  make  proclamations,  play  flute  accompani- 
ments, and  lend  other  help.  Besides  these,  it  was  the  practice 
at  the  more  important  ceremonies  to  call  in  as  acolytes  a  number 
of  boys  and  girls  of  good  parentage  and  character,  and  dis- 
tinguished for  appearance  and  bearing  ;  to  be  one  of  the  selected 
for  such  an  occasion  was  regarded  as  an  honour  to  both  the 
acolyte  and  the  parents. 

The  emoluments  of  the  priest  or  priestess  consisted  of  gifts, 
often  valuable,  together  with  such  perishable  edibles  as  fruits 
and  confections  which  had  been  offered  to  the  god,  as  well  as 
certain  understood  parts  of  all  burnt  sacrifices.  In  some  cases 
free  maintenance  was  given  in  the  City  Hall  and  a  special 
house  was  provided.  Yet  most  Athenian  priests  and  priestesses 
must  have  been  independent  of  these  material  emoluments. 
What  chiefly  attracted  them  to  the  office  was  the  distinction 
and  respect  which  belonged  to  it.  They  enjoyed,  for  example, 
a  seat  of  honour  at  the  theatre  and  at  other  festive  gatherings. 
At  such  times  they  were  marked  by  their  long  hair,  their 


XI 


RELIGION 


141 


flowing  white  robe,  and  their  wreath,  which  was  made  of  the 
plant  sacred  to  the  particular  deity,  as  the  olive  was  to  Athena, 
the  laurel  to  Apollo,  and  the  ivy  to  Dionysus. 

There  were,  however,  other  religious  ceremonies  than  those 
of  particular  temples.  These  belonged  to  clans,  families,  or 
individual  houses.  Apart  from  all  this,  the  typical  house  had 
its  own  altar  to  Zeus  in  the  court,  and  its  special  household 
deities.  To  these  it  was  no  priest,  but  the  house-father, 
Pasicles  himself,  who  sacrificed.  The  case  was  very  much  like 
that  of  the  British  house-father  conducting  family  prayers,  or 
the  ship's  captain  taking  the  place  of  a  chaplain.  But  there  is 
this  difference,  that  at  Athens  there  was  no  such  thing  as 
ordination,  and  the  line  was  not  drawn  as  between  priest  and 
layman,  but  as  between  public  officiator  and  private  officiator. 

And  here  perhaps  we  ought  to  describe  a  sacrifice,  or  what 
we  should  call  religious  service,  at  a  temple.  We  have  already 
given  some  description  of  a  temple  itself  and  of  its  structure. 
A  burnt  sacrifice,  however,  takes  place  at  an  altar  outside  the 
building,  and  this  for  obvious  reasons.  Altars  were  of  various 
shapes,  sizes,  and  material.  In  the  country  you  might  build 
one  of  turf  or  rough  stones  ;  in  the  city  they  were  naturally  of 
marble.  Before  a  temple  the  altar  stands  in  such  a  position 
that,  when  the  doors  are  opened,  the  statue  of  the  deity,  which 
regularly  faces  east,  is  looking  towards  it,  while  the  votaries  on 
their  part  can  look  towards  the  statue  (see  p.  25). 

The  participants  approach  the  altar  in  festal  attire  and  with 
wreaths  upon  their  heads  ;  a  brand  is  taken  from  the  fire  and 
dipped  in  water,  and  with  this  the  company  is  sprinkled. 
The  minister  exclaims,  " Beware  of  your  words,"  or  "Keep 
silence,"  and  prayers  are  then  offered  with  uplifted  head  and 
hand  and  uttered  in  a  distinct  and  audible  voice.  Sometimes 
there  is  chanted  an  ode  specially  composed.  The  victim,  such 
as  a  sheep  or  an  ox,  or  several  (according  to  the  occasion),  is 
led  to  the  altar,  and  its  demeanour  observed.  If  it  does  not 
struggle  back,  the  indication  is  good.  Barley -grains  are 
scattered  on  its  head  ;  the  throat  is  cut  so  that  the  blood  shoots 
into  the  flame;  the  company  raises  a  jubilant  shout;  the 
animal  is  deftly  skinned  and  carved ;  the  thigh-bones,  covered 
with  fat,  or  else  the  lower  part  of  the  chine,  are  burned  in  the 
fire,  so  that  the  savour  mounts  to  heaven ;  and  the  rest  of  the 


142 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


meat — except  the  portion  for  the  officiating  priest — becomes  a 
feast  for  the  participants,  many  of  whom  perhaps  hardly  ever 
taste  meat  except  on  such  occasions.  The  conduct  of  the  sacrifice 
is  accompanied  by  music  from  the  flute,  while  prognostications 
are  drawn  from  the  way  in  which  the  fire  and  smoke  ascend, 
and  also  from  an  examination  of  the  entrails  of  the  victim. 


Fig.  63. — Sacrifice  of  pig. 


About  Greek  prayer  there  is  nothing  mystic.  It  is  not  a 
prayer  for  a  pure  heart  and  for  inward  light,  but  for  some 
definite  outward  help  or  blessing  or  success,  for  victory  in  war, 
or  freedom  from  plague,  or  the  like.  A  private  individual 
prays  for  prosperity  in  a  journey  or  other  enterprise.  He  is 
generally  quite  definite,  and  therefore  unlike  Socrates,  who  stood 
alone  when  he  prayed  simply  for  "  good  "  and  left  it  to  the 
gods  to  decide  what  was  good.  It  was  a  point  of  religious 
etiquette  to  utter  the  prayer  distinctly,  so  that  it  might  be 
known  to  contain  nothing  unfair  or  improper.    Commonly  a 


XI 


RELIGION 


143 


promise  or  vow  was  attached ;  the  god  was  in  fact  guaranteed 
a  quid  pro  quo.  The  prayer  for  rain  ran  merely,  "  Rain,  rain, 
dear  Zeus,  on  the  fields  and  plains  of  the  Athenians." 

Apart  from  such  larger  sacrifices,  inside  the  temple  a  table 
stood  in  front  of  the  statue,  and  on  this  the  votaries  might 
place  flowers,  fruits,  loaves,  cakes  made  like  sacrificial  animals, 
and  the  like.  Vessels  of  gold  and  silver  were  offered  in  the 
temple,  and  were  there  kept  around  the  shrine  on  stands, 
shelves,  brackets,  or  on  the  floor,  while  outside  in  the  vestibule, 
behind  a  railing,  stood  tripods  and  other  large  offerings  which 
might  more  safely  be  exposed.  There  was  hardly  anything 
which  an  Athenian  might  not  dedicate  in  a  temple  in  token  of 
his  gratitude,  whether  cups  of  precious  metal,  or  works  of  art, 
or  captured  armour,  or  simply  the  implements  of  a  trade  which 
he  was  abandoning.  In  a  temple  of  Asclepius,  the  god  of 
healing,  it  was  common  to  affix  to  the  walls  models  of  arms, 
eyes,  or  limbs  which  his  influence  had  cured. 

It  cannot  be  too  much  insisted  upon  that,  indiflerentists, 
philosophers,  and  higher  minds  apart,  the  populace  of  Athens 
was,  as  in  the  days  of  St.  Paul,  "  too  superstitious."  The  fact 
is  particularly  shown  by  their  belief  in  a  multitude  of  omens, 
their  traffic  in  divination  of  all  sorts,  and  their  cultivation  of 
occult  and  ecstatic  ceremonies.  The  poets,  the  better  orators, 
the  philosophers,  and  other  cultivated  or  hard-headed  Athenians 
might  condemn  the  professional  seers  and  dream-readers  and 
corybantic  "  jumpers  and  shakers,"  but  meanwhile  an  infinity 
of  occurrences  caused  genuine  worry  to  many  an  honest  citizen. 
He  might  stumble  as  he  went  out  of  doors,  or  catch  sight  of 
some  unlucky  bird  to  his  left  hand  ;  or,  in  the  country,  he 
might  meet  a  hare  ;  or  he  might  have  had  a  bad  dream  ;  or  he 
might  overhear  some  chance  utterance  which  sounded  in- 
auspicious. Thereupon  he  betakes  himself  to  the  professional 
interpreter  of  these  things,  and  the  seer  gives  him  advice  for  a 
threepenny-piece.  Anything  from  a  sneeze  to  an  eclipse  called 
for  its  expiation.  There  is  a  chapter  of  Theophrastus  concern- 
ing this  type,  and  it  is  comforting  to  reflect  that  his  choice  of 
such  a  "Superstitious  Man"  as  one  of  his  character-studies 
is  an  indication  that  the  type  was  a  special  one.  "  The 
superstitious  man  is  the  sort  of  man  who  ...  if  a  weasel  runs 
across  the  way,  will  not  proceed  until  some  one  has  passed 


144 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


along,  or  until  he  has  thrown  three  stones  across  the  road  .  .  . 
and  if  a  mouse  gnaws  a  hole  in  a  bag  of  meal,  he  will  go  to 
the  expounder  and  ask  what  he  ought  to  do,  and  if  he  replies, 
'  Give  it  to  the  cobbler  to  patch/  he  will  take  no  notice,  but 
will  turn  away  and  offer  expiations.  .  .  .  And  when  he  has  a 
dream,  he  is  off  to  the  dream-readers,  the  seers,  and  the  augurs, 
to  ask  what  god  or  goddess  he  should  pray  to.  .  .  .  On  seeing 
a  madman  or  a  person  in  a  fit  he  goes  all  of  a  shudder  and  spits 
into  his  bosom." 

Nevertheless,  though  the  professional  diviners — the  private 
practitioners  of  seership,  so  to  speak — were  discredited,  the 
whole  community  accepted  the  authority  of  the  great  oracles 
or  prophetic  shrines  like  that  at  Delphi,  and  also  sought  initia- 
tion into  what  were  known  as  the  "  Mysteries  "  of  Eleusis.  It 
would  lie  outside  our  province  to  deal  with  these.  The  only 
care  we  must  take  is  to  avoid  speaking  of  them  with  impatient 
contempt.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that,  with  all  its  irrational 
proceedings,  there  was  in  the  classical  time  nothing  either 
vulgar  or  charlatan  about  the  oracle  of  Delphi.  There  can  be 
as  little  doubt  that,  amid  all  the  emotional  mummery  of  the 
Eleusinian  mysteries,  there  was  something  almost  sacramental ; 
and  we  must  trust  Aristotle  when  he  says  that  the  initiated 
"  learned  nothing  in  particular,  but  received  impressions,  and 
were  brought  into  a  certain  frame  of  mind." 

It  has  already  been  observed  that  Athenian  religion  was  a 
matter  of  state.  The  state  was,  however,  peculiarly  liberal- 
minded  in  this  domain.  It  did  not  go  out  of  its  way  to 
inquire  into  your  private  beliefs,  nor  compel  you  to  any 
conformity  therein.  On  the  other  side,  you  must  not  unduly 
meddle  with  the  beliefs  of  your  neighbourly  preaching  atheism 
or  novel  divinities  of  your  own,  and  you  must  not  damage  or 
insult  sacred  property  or  sacred  symbols,  nor  divulge  or  parody 
the  mysteries,  nor  behave  in  an  unseemly  way  at  religious 
ceremonies  or  festivities. 

If  you  did  any  of  these  things,  you  were  liable  to  an  action 
for  "  impiety  "  or  "  irreverence,"  and  the  power  of  the  state  to 
fine  or  imprison  or  banish  you  or  put  you  to  death  with  hem- 
lock was  theoretically  large  and  vague.  But  in  practice  the 
state  let  you  alone,  until  your  conduct  became,  or  was  con- 
sidered, markedly  dangerous  or  anti-social.    The  question  as 


XL 


RELIGION 


145 


to  when  it  did  become  dangerous  was  decided  by  a  jury  of  five 
hundred  of  your  fellow-citizens. 

Now  let  us  remember  that  Athens,  during  all  our  period, 
was  full  of  sophists,  philosophers,  and  cultivated  men,  who 
argued  about  the  gods  and  their  character.  According  to 
Plato  it  was  well  known  that  some  denied  their  existence,  and 
others  declared  that  at  least  they  never  intervened  in  human 
affairs.  Let  us  remember  also  that  the  comic  poet  Aristophanes 
actually  produces  a  deity  like  Dionysus  on  the  stage,  and 
places  him  in  ridiculous  and  humiliating  positions.  And  let 
us  add  that  a  prosecution  for  "  impiety  "  was  one  of  the  very 
rarest  in  a  state  in  which  prosecuting  or  being  prosecuted  was 
almost  an  order  of  the  day.  It  must  be  evident  that  the 
Athenians  were  in  the  highest  degree  tolerant  or  easy-going  in 
the  matter  of  religion.  But  when,  on  the  other  hand,  we  find 
Protagoras  expelled  from  Athens  because  he  put  it  in  writing 
that  "  he  had  no  means  of  learning  whether  the  gods  existed 
or  not " ;  and  Socrates  condemned  to  death  on  a  charge — 
among  others — of  "  not  recognising  the  gods  whom  the  state 
recognised,  and  introducing  another  new  set  of  divinities " ; 
what  are  we  to  think  ?  The  answer  is  that  these  charges  are 
only  a  use  of  legal  machinery  in  order  to  get  rid  of  men  whose 
conduct  and  influence  had  rendered  them  unpopular  and  seemed 
to  threaten  the  character  of  the  community.  Protagoras  was 
a  foreigner,  and  we  need  not  consider  him ;  but  Socrates  is  a 
clear  instance  in  point.  The  real  charge  against  him  is  that 
he  was  a  corrupter  of  the  young,  and,  in  fact,  a  public  nuisance. 
Our  notion  of  Socrates  is  that  which  has  been  presented  to  us 
by  his  pupils  Plato  and  Xenophon,  and  they  were  probably 
excellent  judges  from  an  aristocratic  point  of  view  ;  but  if  we 
could  discover  the  ordinary  Athenian  feeling  towards  him,  we 
should  find  that  it  was  one  of  prejudice  and  irritation,  not  so 
much  at  his  religious  heterodoxies,  which  were  common  enough, 
but  at  his  whole  personality  and  influence.  In  a  small  and 
clubbable  community  like  Athens  personal  unpopularity  counted 
for  much,  and  the  accusers  of  Socrates  plainly  seized  the 
psychological  moment. 


L 


CHAPTEE  XII 


FESTIVALS  AND  THE  THEATRE 

The  religion  of  Pasicles  and  Lysimachus  therefore  sits  easily 
upon  them.  And  on  the  whole  it  is  a  cheerful  and  festive 
religion.  It  delights  in  holidays,  processions,  sports  and  feasts. 
The  theatre  at  Athens,  both  tragic  and  comic,  was  the  outcome 
of  religion  ;  the  great  athletic  games  at  Olympia  and  elsewhere 
were  the  outcome  of  religion.  It  is  as  with  us ;  almost  all  our 
holidays — such  as  Christmas  and  Easter — are  in  origin  religious 
holidays.  There  were  festivals  to  celebrate  the  budding  spring 
and  the  autumn  vintage,  and  these  were  parts  of  the  worship 
of  the  gods  of  fructification,  who  pass  under  such  names  as 
Dionysus  (or  Bacchus)  and  Demeter.  If  there  was  once  some 
gloomy  day  of  celebrations  to  the  dead — an  "  All  Souls'  Day  " 
— it  soon  became  converted  into  a  joyous  holiday,  after  the 
manner  in  which  the  solemn  Good  Friday  is  gradually  coming 
to  be  treated  by  the  generality.  There  were  country  festivities 
about  Christmas  time,  a  feast  of  the  wine-press  in  January,  an 
"  All  Souls' "  festival  of  three  days  in  February,  a  great  "  City 
Festival "  of  Bacchus  for  five  days  in  March,  a  festival  of  first- 
fruits  in  May,  the  splendid  holiday  of  Athena  for  six  days  in 
the  July  of  every  fourth  year.  There  were  other  festivals 
scattered  through  the  calendar. 

Inasmuch  as  the  two  chief  and  most  distinctive  Athenian 
celebrations  are  the  feast  of  Athena — the  patron  goddess — in 
each  fourth  year  (a  minor  festival  of  the  same  deity  being 
celebrated  annually),  and  the  feast  of  Dionysus  with  its 
theatrical  performances  every  March,  we  may  take  a  brief 
glance  at  the  former  and  then  deal  somewhat  more  fully  with 
the  latter. 

146 


CHAP.  XII 


FESTIVALS  AND  THE  THEATRE 


147 


The  "  Panathenaea  "  included,  in  the  first  place,  contests  in 
athletics,  in  music,  and  in  literary  recitation.  In .  the  large 
and  domed  "  Hall  of  Song  "  there  was  a  public  competition  in 
the  delivery  of  passages  of  Homer,  another  in  singing  to  the 
accompaniment  of  the  harp,  another  in  instrumental  ntusic 
upon  the  harp,  or  lyre,  and  the  flute.  The  rewards  were  prizes 
in  money,  together  with  the  outward  distinction  of  a  wreath 
or  crown. 

In  the  athletic  competitions  there  were  included  running, 
jumping,  wrestling,  spear-throwing,  discus-throwing,  and  a  foot- 
race of  men  in  full  armour.  In  these  events  boys  competed 
with  boys,  youths  with  youths,  and  men  with  men ;  the  contests 
were  conducted  in  heats,  and  the  prize,  which  dated  from  early 
times,  was  a  strange  one.  It  consisted  of  a  stock  of  olive  oil  of 
considerable  marketable  value,  and  of  jars  artistically  painted. 
The  reason  for  this  was  that  the  festival  belonged  to  Athena, 
who  was  not  only  the  goddess  of  Athens,  but  also  of  its  special 
product,  the  olive.  In  another  competition,  very  Athenian  in 
character,  each  of  the  ten  political  divisions  of  the  people  pre- 
sented four-and-twenty  men,  the  finest  in  appearance  and  the 
best  arrayed  which  it  could  produce,  and  a  prize  for  what  was 
styled  "  fine  manhood  "  was  awarded  to  the  best  set.  Horse- 
racing  and  chariot-racing  were  great  features  of  the  meeting, 
and  every  inducement  was  held  out  to  Athenians  of  means  to 
breed  horses  and  practise  driving  and  horsemanship.  But  be 
it  said  in  passing  that  classical  Athens  despised  the  professional 
athlete  and  pot-hunter,  who,  nevertheless,  ultimately  managed 
to  ruin  the  competitions. 

On  another  day  there  followed  an  all-night  festivity  of  song 
and  dance  and  of  races  with  the  torch,  in  which  one  chain  of 
runners  competed  with  another  chain,  the  object  being  to  pass 
a  blazing  torch  along  the  line  from  point  to  point  in  the  quickest 
time  without  permitting  it  to  go  out. 

The  chief  day  of  all  was  the  occasion  of  the  greatest  proces- 
sion known  in  Athens.  The  citizens  and  Outlanders  gathered 
in  the  Cerameicus,  the  cavalry-men  on  their  horses,  the  public 
officers  in  all  their  regalia,  and  every  one  in  his  most  brilliant 
attire.  The  main  business  is  to  escort  to  the  Acropolis  a  large 
and  gorgeous  robe,  to  be  presented  to  the  ancient  statue  of 
Athena.  This,  which  is  of  yellow  material  embroidered  with 
legendary  exploits  of  Athena  against  the  Giants,  is  spread  as  a 


148 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


sail  upon  the  mast  of  the  model  of  a  ship,  which  is  propelled 
along  the  street  on  wheels  or  rollers.  The  cavalry  in  their 
bright  cloaks  ride  ahead ;  the  winners  in  the  contests,  wearing 
their  wreaths,  the  dignitaries  and  old  men  of  good  repute, 
carrying  olive  branches,  follow  after.  Then  come  maidens  of 
good  birth,  bearing  gracefully  on  their  heads  the  light  baskets 
used  in  the  sacrifice  ;  and  behind  them  women  of  the  Outlanders 
carrying  the  parasols  and  the  camp-stools  of  the  privileged 
daughters  of  Athens.  The  rest  of  the  procession  is  made  up  of 
every  citizen  of  Athens  who  is  able  to  attend.  From  the 
Cerameicus  the  procession  moves  down  through  the  public 
square,  winds  through  the  chief  streets  to  the  foot  of  the  Acro- 
polis, mounts  through  the  Propylaea,  and  passes  to  the  older 
temple,  in  front  of  which  a  great  sacrifice — nominally  of  a 
hundred  animals — is  made.  A  feast  follows,  and  the  whole 
festival  is  closed  by  a  regatta  at  the  harbour-town  of  Peiraeus. 
Meanwhile  all  manner  of  side-shows,  acrobatic  tricks,  conjuring 
tricks,  sword -swallowing,  and  fire -swallowing  go  on  amid 
temporary  booths  and  stalls  corresponding  to  the  structures 
erected  at  those  English  fairs  which  are  now  so  rapidly  dying 
out. 

To  us,  however,  the  most  interesting  of  Athenian  festivities 
is  the  spring  feast  of  Dionysus,  the  god  of  fructification  of 
plants  and,  in  particular,  of  the  vine ;  most  interesting,  both  in 
itself  and  because  it  has  left  to  us  a  magnificent  legacy  in  the 
shape  of  the  tragedies  of  Aeschylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides, 
and  the  comedies  of  Aristophanes,  which  are  not  only  such 
superlative  works  of  literary  art,  but  have  so  profoundly  influ- 
enced the  shape  of  our  own  dramatic  creations.  We  need  not 
describe  the  revels  and  deliberate  intoxications  of  the  feast  in 
general.  But  the  Attic  theatre  and  its  productions  are  an 
elaborate  outcome  of  this  blending  of  worship  and  revel,  and 
we  cannot  afford  to  neglect  so  important  and  far-reaching  an 
element  in  Athenian  life. 

There  is  no  occasion  here  to  discuss  the  manner  in  which  the 
old  rough  dances  and  crude  mimicry  of  the  spring  holiday  grew 
into  the  extremely  artistic  drama  of  the  classical  period.  We 
need  only  take  the  performances  as  they  actually  were,  and 
briefly  picture  them. 

But  first  we  must  be  warned  against  a  common  error.  It 


XII 


FESTIVALS  AND  THE  THEATRE 


149 


was  only  during  the  last  part  of  our  period  that  the  great  stone 
theatre  of  Athens  was  being  built.  When  our  friend  Lysimachus 
was  a  youth,  the  theatre  was  a  very  different  thing  from  what 
it  had  become  by  the  time  he  was  an  old  man.  The  structure 
and  staging  of  the  theatre  to  which  Pericles  or  Plato  went,  and 
for  which  Sophocles  and  Aristophanes  wrote,  was,  like  the 
theatre  of  Shakespeare,  by  no  means  on  a  level  with  the  genius 
and  poetry  of  the  dramatist,  or  the  merit  of  the  acting,  or  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  spectators.  A  temporary  erection,  with  tiers 
of  seats,  was  built  round  three  parts  of  a  flat  circle ;  facing  the 
seats,  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  flat  space,  was  perhaps  a  low 
wooden  dais,  the  first  hint  of  a  stage ;  behind  this  again  a 
wooden  structure,  with  a  certain  amount  of  scenery  roughly 
indicated  upon  it  or  upon  canvas  hung  in  front  of  it,  to  repre- 
sent a  palace,  a  house  of  one  or  two  stories,  a  cave,  or  whatever 
was  required.  As  with  the  London  theatre  of  Shakespeare's 
day,  a  good  deal  had  to  be  left  to  the  imagination  of  the 
spectators.  It  was  hinted  to  the  audience,  both  in  words 
and  in  a  few  accessories,  that  they  were  in  Thebes  or  Hades, 
and  they  were  expected  to  believe  it.  But,  as  dramatic  art  and 
experience  advanced  on  the  technical  side,  more  and  more  was 
done  in  the  way  of  lending  an  air  of  reality.  There  were 
introduced  a  few  mechanical  contrivances  and  some  imperfect 
devices  for  creating  a  change  of  scene — although  Greek  drama, 
for  the  most  part,  avoids  such  changes,  mainly  in  view  of  the 
practical  difficulty.  Let  us,  for  our  purposes,  suppose  those 
advances  to  have  been  made,  and  in  place  of  the  old  wooden 
theatre,  let  us  imagine  that  we  are  at  the  date — contemporary 
with  Demosthenes  or  Aristotle — when  there  was  in  existence 
the  immense  stone  structure  of  which  remains  have  been 
unearthed.  That  building  will  accommodate,  or  at  least  will 
hold  closely  packed,  nearly  30,000  spectators,  and  yet  the 
actor's  voice  will  be  heard  distinctly  in  the  topmost  row.  From 
a  glance  at  the  plan  upon  the  chart  of  Athens,  and  then  at  a 
drawing  of  the  existing  remains,  it  is  possible  to  get  a  far  better 
idea  than  words  can  impart  of  the  theatre  of  Athens,  as  the 
seats  rose  in  an  irregular  curve  of  about  two-thirds  of  a  circle 
up  the  side  of  the  Acropolis  hill.  Some  of  the  upper  seats 
were  actually  cut  in  the  rock  itself.  The  theatre,  which  has  no 
roof,  faces  south,  in  order  to  catch  the  warmth,  the  season  for 
the  performances  being  early  spring.    To  supplement  the  notion 


CHAP.  XII 


FESTIVALS  AND  THE  THEATRE 


151 


thus  formed,  we  may  take  a  scheme,  not  indeed  of  this  actual 
theatre,  but  one  sufficiently  illustrating  the  type.  In  the  actual 
remains,  as  here  drawn,  there  is  something  which  does  not 
belong  to  our  period,  but  for  which  it  is  the  Roman  of  centuries 
later  who  is  responsible.  The  steep  wall  round  the  dancing- 
place  should  not  be  there,  but  the  slope  of  the  seats  should  be 


Scale  of  Metres 
10    5     o  10         20         30         40  50 

Li  1  1  1  1  1  '   1  1  » 


Fig.  65.— Typical  plan  of  theatre  (Epidaurus;. 

carried  right  down  in  a  much  more  graceful  way,  as  depicted 
in  the  next  illustration,  where  the  wall  c  should  be  removed. 

The  seats  were  made  as  easy  as  stone  would  admit  by 
hollowing  the  surface  and  under  the  front.  It  was,  however, 
a  common  thing  to  have  your  own  cushion  brought  along. 
The  chairs  which  appear  in  the  front  row  are  for  the  use  of  the 
priests  of  certain  special  deities  and  for  the  highest  officers  of 
state.  The  middle  seat,  which  is  covered  with  figures  carved 
in  relief,  is  naturally  that  of  the  priest  of  Dionysus,  who  is  the 
god  of  the  festivity.  The  stage  at  this  period  is  not  a  fixture, 
and  is  of  no  great  height.    Somewhere  in  good  view  of  the 


152 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


audience  stand  bronze  statues  of  the  great  dramatists  of  the 
past. 

So  much  for  the  building.  As  for  the  performance,  be  it 
remembered  that  the  occasion  is  one  of  religion,  and  that  the 
whole  state  owns  the  theatre  and  is  the  supreme  director  of  the 
proceedings.  Moreover,  it  must  be  premised  that,  while  the 
performances  are  for  the  delight  of  the  spectators,  they  are  also 
contests  for  a  prize  between  rival  dramatists  and  rival  actors. 
There  is  no  private  speculation  about  the  matter.  There  are 
to  be,  on  three  days,  three  sets  of  tragedies  by  three  composers, 
and  a  comedy  by  each  of  five  composers  ;  and  the  state,  through 


the  proper  officer,  will  begin  by  selecting,  a  sufficient  time 
beforehand,  the  playwrights  who  seem  likely  to  present  the 
best  work.  It  will  then  assign  to  each  by  lot  a  chief  or  "  star  " 
actor  out  of  a  recognised  list,  and  that  actor  will  choose  the 
second  and  third,  who  are  to  support  him ;  for,  however  many 
characters  (except  supers)  may  nominally  appear  in  a  play, 
their  parts  must  generally  be  so  arranged  that  three  actors  can 
between  them  perform  them  all.  These  actors  will  be  paid  by 
the  state.  This  appeared  to  the  Athenians  better  policy  than 
for  a  play  to  be  acted  by  a  cast  with  a  weak  "tail." 

Next,  the  proper  officer  assigns  to  each  playwright,  out  of  a 
roster,  a  person  of  means,  whose  turn  it  is  to  undertake  such 
burden.  This  citizen  will  hire,  dress,  and  train  a  body  of 
singers  and  dancers  —  fifteen  for  tragedy,  twenty  -  four  for 


Fig.  66.— Seats  sloping  to  orchestra. 


XII 


FESTIVALS  AND  THE  THEATRE 


153 


comedy — who  take  a  part  in  the  play  under  the  name  of  the 
"chorus."    In  this  sense  it  is  the  state  which  meets  the  expense. 


Fig.  67. — Seat  of  priest  of  Dionysus. 


A  Greek  drama  is  practically  a  compound  of  dialogue  and 
acting  with  opera  and  artistic  dance.  The  words  and  the  play 
are  the  first  thing,  and  these  must  be  literature ;  the  music  and 


154 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


dancing  come  next ;  while  the  staging  is  of  comparatively  little 
moment.  Hence  it  was  necessary  that  every  participator 
should  be  trained  to  the  highest  degree  of  perfection  in  both 
voice  and  movement.  The  first  requirement  of  an  Athenian 
actor  was  command  of  a  clear,  flexible,  and  sonorous  voice  ;  the 
chorus  must  be  prepared  to  execute  its  music  and  evolutions 
with  the  utmost  precision. 

Well,  the  training  is  done,  and  the  first  day  arrives.  At 
daybreak  the  spectators  —  men,  women,  and  boys  —  come 
streaming  into  the  theatre,  partly  through  the  passages  at  the 
side  of  the  stage,  and  partly  through  two  entrances  near  the 
upper  rows.  They  may  bring  cushions  with  them,  and  they 
will  also  frequently  bring  light  refreshments.  It  is  etiquette 
to  wear  a  garland  of  ivy-leaves,  and  festive  attire.  The  first 
chairs  will  be  occupied  by  the  dignitaries  already  mentioned  : 
other  front  seats  will  be  given  to  foreign  envoys,  to  citizens 
specially  honoured  for  some  service  to  their  country,  and  to 
victors  in  the  great  Grecian  games.  According  to  Theophrastus, 
the  "Man  of  Petty  Ambitions" — the  "Snob,"  in  fact  —  is 
always  anxious  to  secure  a  seat  near  the  high  officials.  As 
distinguished  or  popular  persons  enter,  the  audience  will 
applaud  or  cheer  them  ;  unpopular  persons  may  be  greeted  by 
whistling  and  clucking.  Special  sections  of  the  theatre  are  set 
apart  for  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  for  the  women,  for  the 
youths  serving  their  conscription,  and  for  foreigners.  Officials 
carrying  wands  are  posted  to  carry  out  such  arrangements  in 
orderly  fashion,  and,  presumably,  to  make  the  audience  sit  close. 

Thus  just  after  daybreak  everything  is  ready.  The  whole 
morning  will  be  occupied  by  one  set  of  tragedies.  Comedy 
will  follow  in  the  afternoon  after  lunch.  To-morrow,  another 
set  of  tragedies  in  the  morning,  other  comedy  in  the  afternoon ; 
and  so  for  the  third  day.  Eemember  that  such  a  festival  takes 
place  only  once  in  the  year,  and  that  even  comedies  are  only 
seen  twice,  or  at  most  thrice,  annually.  After  a  few  ceremonies, 
which  do  not  here  concern  us,  the  crier  proclaims  that  the 
tragic  poet  So-and-So  will  "  bring  in  his  chorus  " ;  and  the  per- 
formance begins.  On  the  level  floor  moves  the  chorus  ;  on  the 
low  stage,  or  on  the  level  itself,  are  the  actors ;  and  merciless 
in  its  criticism  is  the  audience  in  the  seats.  The  performers, 
be  it  premised,  are  all  men.    If  the  piece  is  strong  and  good, 


XII 


FESTIVALS  AND  THE  THEATRE 


155 


the  language  and  the  thoughts  noble,  and  if  the  actor  is 
effective,  the  spectators  yield  themselves  up  freely  to  the  pathos 
and  excitement,  the  feelings  of  pity  and  fear  aroused  by  the 
piece.  They  will  be  hushed  in  profound  silence,  or  they  will 
weep  and  start  up  and  sway  themselves  about  when  the  action 
reaches  its  climax.  They  applaud  by  clapping  their  hands,  and 
occasionally  they  shout  the  Greek  equivalent  of  "  encore.'' 
But  if  the  piece  is  poor,  they  whistle,  cluck  with  their  tongues, 
kick  their  heels  against  the  seats,  and  drive  it  from  the  stage. 
To  use  their  own  words,  they  "  throw  it  out."  If  the  piece  is 
simply  indifferent,  they  bring  out  their  refreshments  and  go  on 
eating  their  fruit  or  confectionery  and  drinking  their  wine.  If 
they  greatly  disapprove  of  an  actor,  they  not  only  whistle  and 
cluck,  but  in  extreme  cases  they  pelt  him  with  figs,  nuts, 
grapes,  or  olives.  This  must  have  been  done  to  a  far  less 
extent  in  the  great  Athenian  theatre  than  in  the  smaller  ones 
in  the  country.  Aeschines,  the  orator,  was  once  a  third-rate 
actor,  and  Demosthenes  declared  that,  when  playing  in  the 
country,  he  was  so  pelted  with  figs  and  such  things  that  he 
collected  enough  to  set  up  a  fruit-shop.  Even  stones  were  not 
unknown  as  missiles  at  some  performances,  though  this  would 
not  occur  at  our  tragedy.  Once  an  inferior  musician,  who 
desired  to  repair  a  house,  went  to  a  friend  to  borrow  stones  for 
the  purpose,  promising  that  he  would  pay  them  back  out  of 
"the  receipts  of  his  next  performance."  Also  a  comic  play- 
wright once  came  into  the  theatre  with  his  cloak  full  of  stones, 
and  himself  threw  them  down  for  the  subsequent  use  of  his 
audience. 

And  here  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  the  taste  of  the  Athenian 
audience  was  in  the  main  right.  A  certain  number  of  repre- 
sentative citizens  was  first  selected ;  ten  of  these  were  then 
drawn  by  lot  and  made  judges  of  the  plays  and  actors ;  and 
when  the  ten  had  deposited  their  several  verdicts  in  a  receptacle 
for  the  purpose,  the  first  five  drawn  from  this  receptacle 
decided  the  prizes.  This  should  be  a  fairly  adequate  way  of 
getting  at  the  opinion  of  the  average  intelligent  man,  and  it 
was  this  opinion  which  awarded  the  prize  to  an  Aeschylus,  a 
Sophocles,  a  Euripides,  or  an  Aristophanes.  The  judgment  of 
a  special  clique  or  coterie  of  illuminati  is  scarcely  ever  right ; 
the  opinion  of  humanity  at  large  is  not  always  right,  but 
history  shows  that  it  is  more  to  be  trusted.    Aristotle  indeed 


156 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


OHAP. 


complains  that  in  his  day  the  audience  had  a  weakness  for 
poetic  justice,  that  it  had  too  much  of  the  melodramatic  instinct 
for  the  triumph  of  virtue  and  the  discomfiture  of  vice.  The 
gallery  "  gods  "  in  the  Athenian  theatre  were  numerous,  and,  like 
the  gallery  gods  elsewhere,  they  had  a  taste  for  fine  moral  senti- 
_____  merits  delivered  with  an  air.  Never- 
Hl  theless  the  judgment  of  the  audience 
as  a  whole  was  in  the  classical  time 
remarkably  true.  Yet  then,  as  now, 
there  was  always  the  superior  person 
who,  according  to  Theophrastus,  made 
a  point  of  hissing  when  the  rest  ap- 
plauded and  of  clapping  when  they 
were  silent. 

The  scenery,  it  has  been  remarked, 
was  scanty,  although  wood  painted  in 
perspective  was  already  employed.  One 
way  of  assisting  a  change  was  by  means 
of  two  small  triangular  structures,  one 
at  either  end  of  the  stage,  with  painting 
on  each  of  the  three  sides.  These  could 
be  turned  round  on  a  pivot,  and  to  that 
extent  the  scene  was  shifted.  For  the 
most  part  all  changes  and  operations 
were  within  view  of  the  audience,  who 
took  them  for  granted,  as  they  did  in 
the  Globe  Theatre  of  Shakespeare.  If 
a  god  had  to  appear  from  the  sky  he 
was  swung  by  a  crane,  specially  called 
the  "  machine,"  on  to  an  elevated  plat- 

L.  ._  .J    form,  or  balcony,  called  the  u god-stage"; 

and,  since  he  was  too  often  called  in  to 
solve  a  difficulty  in  the  plot,  the  expres- 
sion "  the  god  from  the  machine  "  (deus  ex  machina)  is  to  this 
day  proverbial  for  such  miraculous  intervention.  But,  as  in 
the  Shakespearian  theatre,  defects  in  scenic  equipment  were 
atoned  for  by  great  literature  and  powerful  acting.  Also,  as 
in  the  Shakespearian  theatre,  the  dressing  of  both  actors  and 
chorus  was  magnificent  and  costly. 


Fio.  68.— Tragic  actor  ;  ivory. 


Doubtless,  to  a  close  view,  a  tragic  actor  in  full  dress  was 


XII 


FESTIVALS  AND  THE  THEATRE 


157 


an  amazing  sight.  Kemember  the  vast  size  of  the  auditorium, 
remember  that  the  details  of  facial  expression  on  the  stage  were 
necessarily  imperceptible  to  the  majority,  and  that  there  were  no 
such  things  as  opera-glasses  ;  then  perhaps  it  is  intelligible  why, 
under  those  gorgeous  robes,  a  tragic  actor  had  padded  his  person, 
why  he  walked  in  boots  lifted  on  several  inches  of  cork  sole,  and 
why,  completely  covering  his  head,  he  wore  a  mask,  which  he 


Fig.  69. — Tragic  masks  ;  from  a  painting. 

could  change  either  when  assuming  another  character,  or  when  he 
was  to  be  represented  as  having  undergone  affliction  or  sickness. 
In  the  distance,  on  the  stage,  the  crudeness  of  all  this  equip- 
ment is  toned  down,  and,  just  as  scene-painting  looks  finished 
and  right  when  seen  from  the  right  point  of  view,  and 
would  look  wrong  if  too  finished,  so  was  it  with  the  Athenian 
actor's  appearance.  But  there  must  meanwhile  be  no  lack  of 
finish  about  his  voice.  He  must  not  rant  or  bellow,  and  his 
articulation  and  intonation  are  judged  by  the  finest  and  most 


158 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


scrupulous  ear  ever  possessed  by  an  audience.  A  slip  in  accent 
or  pronunciation  evokes  shouts  of  ridicule,  and  he  never  hears 
the  last  of  it.  Also  he  must  not  over-act  •  that  is  called  "  act- 
ing the  monkey." 

Meanwhile  the  chorus,  led  by  its  head-man  (from  whom  we 


Fig.  70.— Mask  of  Perseus. 


derive  our  term  "  coryphaeus "),  from  time  to  time  sings  and 
dances  to  a  flute  accompaniment.  The  singing  is  in  unison,  since 
arrangement  in  harmony  is  as  yet  unknown  ;  and,  first  and  fore- 
most, the  words  must  be  heard  distinctly.  The  dancing  is  not 
our  dancing.  It  is  not  primarily  a  matter  of  the  feet.  There 
are,  of  course,  graceful  and  elegant  movements  to  and  fro  ;  but 
Athenian  dancing  was  done  with  the  whole  body  :  the  head, 
hands,  and  every  part  are  made  expressive ;  the  gestures  and 


XII 


FESTIVALS  AND  THE  THEATRE 


159 


motions  are  expressive ;  they  mean  something,  and  are  an 
appropriate  emphasis  to  the  words.  And,  sad  to  say,  all  the 
time  there  is  a  man  in  the  audience  who  is  fast  asleep,  and  who 
will  only  wake  up  to  find  the  theatre  empty. 

At  noon  the  first  set  of  tragedies  is  over.  There  is  an 
interval  for  lunch,  and  in  the  afternoon  the  seats  are  again 
packed  for  the  comic  performance.  The  only  difference  is  that 
women  who  respect  themselves  will  stay  at  home.  The  wit 
and  humour  of  the  Athenian  comedians  were  in  the  highest 


Fig.  71.— Comic  masks  ;  from  a  painting. 


degree  brilliant.  Aristophanes,  for  example,  is  the  most  com- 
prehensive blend  of  Moliere,  Sheridan,  Gilbert  and  Sullivan, 
and  farce.  But  the  fun  is  far  too  uproarious  and  the  tone  far 
too  unrestrained  for  the  Athenian  matron. 

In  the  method  of  performance  there  is  no  essential  difference; 
the  difference  lies  only  in  the  purpose.  The  audience  comes  to 
laugh.  It  is  a  festival  of  Dionysus,  and  whether  persons  or 
classes  of  persons  are  satirised,  it  is  best  to  take  everything  in 
good  part. 

For  three  days  the  performances  continue,  and  for  a  year 
afterwards  the  audience  will  have  upon  their  lips  quotations 
from  the  tragedies  and  jokes  from  the  comedies  ;  they  will  be 


160 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  XII 


humming  snatches  from  the  choruses ;  they  will  be  striking 
attitudes  in  imitation  of  the  actors. 

But  before  the  company  finally  separates  the  judges  have 
to  record  their  verdicts.  They  must  give  a  prize  in  money  to 
the  best  playwright  in  tragedy  and  also  in  comedy,  a  prize  to 
the  best  actor  in  each,  and  a  prize  of  a  tripod  to  the  well-to-do 
citizen  before-mentioned  who  had  provided  and  sent  in  the 
best-trained  and  best-equipped  chorus.  In  other  words,  there 
is  a  prize  for  literature,  for  acting,  and  for  public  spirit.  The 
names  of  the  winners  are  registered  on  stone  tablets,  and  the 
citizen  who  receives  the  tripod  is  generally  sufficiently  proud 
of  the  distinction  to  present  it  back  to  the  public,  by  dedicating 
it  to  some  temple  or  placing  it  on  a  pedestal  in  the  street 
known  as  Tripod  Street.  One  handsome  example  still  remains, 
though  without  the  tripod,  in  the  shape  of  the  Choragic  Monu- 
ment of  Lysicrates. 

The  only  other  detail  to  be  mentioned  is  that,  though  the 
theatre  belonged  to  the  state,  it  was  farmed  out  to  a  lessee,  who 
looked  after  the  building  and  its  repairs,  undertook  the  supply 
of  certain  accessories,  and  therefore  charged  for  admission  to  all 
seats  but  those  officially  reserved.  For  the  latter  there  were 
metal  or  ivory  tickets,  tokens  or  passes,  of  which  some  are 
still  in  existence,  bearing  the  name  of  the  owner  and  a  number. 
Except  for  the  reserved  places  a  seat  cost  two  obols — threepence 
in  English  silver,  but  probably  equal  in  value  to  the  modern 
ninepence.  Inasmuch,  however,  as  the  festival  was  religious 
and  the  theatre  belonged  to  the  public  and  was  under  public 
administration,  the  state,  in  the  period  with  which  we  are 
dealing,  distributed  to  all  citizens  who  asked  for  it  the  said 
sum  of  two  obols,  apparently  to  do  as  they  chose  with.  It  was 
their  holiday  dole  from  the  state,  which  assumed — not  always 
more  rightly  than  in  the  experience  of  modern  hospitals — that 
it  would  only  be  the  poor  who  would  claim  the  assistance. 
There  were  mean  people  at  Athens,  as  elsewhere,  and  Theo- 
phrastus  tells  us  of  one  type  in  this  connection.  Towards  the 
end  of  a  performance  the  lessee  did  not  trouble  any  longer 
about  the  ticket-office,  and,  says  Theophrastus,  the  mean  man 
would  come  and  bring  his  boys  to  the  theatre  at  the  hour  when 
the  lessee  was  letting  people  into  the  gallery  for  nothing. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


COUNCIL  AND  ASSEMBLY 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  dealt  with  the  various  classes  of  the 
population,  namely  the  citizens,  the  outlanders,  and  the  slaves. 
Among  the  citizens  themselves  the  great  Athenian  principle 
was  equality,  and  that  principle  was  carried  to  extraordinary 
lengths.  We  cannot  here  go  into  many  details  of  Athenian 
administration  or  of  other  constitutional  antiquities.  But  in 
order  properly  to  understand  the  life  of  our  typical  citizen,  we 
must  get  some  fair  notion  of  the  part  he  might  be  expected 
to  play,  besides  his  military  service,  in  public  affairs. 

By  equality  the  Athenians  did  not  mean  pecuniary  equality  ; 
they  knew  the  impossibility  of  that.  They  meant  equal  rights 
and  equal  opportunities.  They  had  found  out  the  injustices  of 
despotism  and  oligarchy  and  class  rule,  and  they  endeavoured 
in  every  way  to  guard  against  undue  power  of  any  man  or 
class  of  men.  The  possibility  of  conspiracy  or  bribery  was  also 
always  in  their  minds.  Not  only  was  every  citizen  to  be  equal 
before  the  law  ;  he  was  to  enjoy,  as  far  as  human  ingenuity 
could  contrive,  an  equal  opportunity  of  legislating,  of  holding 
executive  office,  and  of  administering  justice.  The  endeavour 
was  to  give,  as  far  as  possible,  to  every  one  not  actually  incap- 
acitated his  share  in  these  three  functions — not  in  one  or  other 
of  them.  The  deliberative  assembly  therefore  included  all 
respectable  citizens ;  so  in  actual  practice  did  the  law-courts. 
It  was  not,  of  course,  equally  feasible  for  all  citizens  to  be 
holding  executive  offices,  but  every  device  was  tried  for  dis- 
tributing those  offices  as  widely  as  possible.  In  the  first  place, 
offices  were  extremely  numerous  and  but  slenderly  paid.  The 
pay  was  seldom  the  first  consideration,  and  often  it  was  no 

162 


CHAP.  XIII 


COUNCIL  AND  ASSEMBLY 


163 


consideration  at  all.  Next,  besides  being  numerous,  the  offices 
were  annual,  and  there  was  a  provision  that  no  one  should 
hold  the  same  civil  office  twice.  The  only  exception  was 
membership  of  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  and  twice  was 
the  limit  even  in  that  instance.  In  the  third  place,  the  election 
to  office  was  by  lot.  In  some  functions,  it  is  true,  special  fit- 
ness was  indispensable,  and  an  election  took  place  accordingly. 
This  was  the  case  with  military  commanders,  the  officers  of 
the  water-supply,  the  superintendent  of  public  works,  and  the 


Fig.  73.— Athenian  weight;  public  standard. 


occupants  of  certain  high  financial  posts.  The  rest  were  chosen 
by  lot  from  those  who  came  forward.  Black  and  white  beans 
were  put  into  a  vessel  and  drawn  out  singly,  and  the  man  who 
drew  a  white  bean  received  office.  There  was,  however,  appar- 
ently enough  pressure  of  public  opinion  to  keep  the  entirely 
unfit  from  offering  themselves.  Moreover,  after  the  lot  had 
been  drawn,  an  officer's  personal  fitness  could  be  challenged ; 
during  his  term  his  performance  of  his  duties  could  be  im- 
peached ;  his  accounts  were  audited  every  month ;  and  at  the 
end  of  his  year  he  was  subject  to  a  general  inquiry  into  all 
his  actions.  Add  that  the  work  in  itself  was  frequently  simple 
routine.    The  Athenians  were  also  sensitive  to  public  criticism 


164 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAT. 


and  were  eager  for  public  approbation.  The  system  therefore 
worked  better  than  might  have  been  anticipated.  The  abso- 
lutely incompetent  were  held  back  or  turned  out,  and  there 
was  secured  a  fair  average  of  practical  ability  and  experience, 
which  proved  very  helpful  when  the  same  man  came  to  take 
his  part  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Assembly  or  in  the  decisions 
of  the  law-courts.  Beyond  this  Athens  had  no  "public"  or 
"  civil "  service.  There  existed  a  board  of  chief  magistrates, 
revenue  and  treasury  officers,  temple  stewards,  police  com- 
missioners, a  Harbour  Board,  a  Eoad  Board,  a  Public  Buildings 
Board,  a  Board  for  the  Market,  for  the  city  streets,  for  weights 
and  measures,  for  corn  supply,  for  pure  food,  for  the  public 
games,  and  more  besides.  But  these  were  simply  reputable 
citizens  elected  for  the  year  and  by  lot,  and  disqualified  from 


Fig.  74. — Athenian  coin. 


serving  again.  And  whatever  drawback  one  may  immediately 
perceive  in  this  system,  one  may,  on  the  other  hand,  easily 
realise  that  it  produced  an  aggregate  of  experience  which 
counted  for  much  when  the  Assembly  met  to  legislate.  It  was 
at  least  better  than  the  American  "  spoils  "  system. 

But  was  there  no  President,  no  "Ministry"  or  "Premier"? 
There  were,  in  one  sense  at  least,  none  of  these  things.  To 
whom  then  would  official  communications  be  made  by  other 
states,  or  who  would  take  the  initiative  in  a  sudden  crisis 

Before  answering  that  question,  we  must  say  a  word  about 
the  "Council"  or  "Senate."  All  the  power,  we  have  said, 
lies  ultimately  with  the  people.  But  "  the  people  "  as  a  whole 
cannot  be  always  together  and  considering  nothing  but  public 
business.  Accordingly  a  body  of  500  citizens  of  over  thirty 
years  of  age,  chosen  annually  by  lot,  formed  a  sort  of  standing 
executive  committee  of  the  said  people.     The  members  of 


XIII 


COUNCIL  AND  ASSEMBLY 


165 


this  body  received  a  drachma  (perhaps  really  worth  half-a- 
crown)  a  day.  They  prepared  business  for  the  Assembly  and 
attended  to  matters  of  urgency.  But  even  500  are  too  large 
a  body  for  daily  detail.  They  were  therefore  divided  again 
into  ten  sections  of  fifty,  and  each  fifty  took  it  in  turns  to 
serve  as  a  smaller  executive  for  five  weeks.  During  these 
weeks  the  fifty  will  dine  together  in  a  special  hall  at  the  public 
expense ;  they  will  give  first  audience  to  ambassadors ;  will 
be  approached  first  in  all  matters  within  the  province  of  the 
Council ;  will  be  conveners  of  the  Council,  and  will  summon 
meetings  of  the  Assembly,  either  by  fixing  up  in  the  Agora 
those  notices  which  correspond  to  our  government  proclama- 
tions and  advertisements,  or  else  by  sending  round  a  trumpeter 
and  crier.  Meanwhile  one  person  is  chosen  by  lot  every  twenty- 
four  hours  to  be  president.  He  will  hold  the  keys  of  the  treasury 
and  of  the  archives  for  just  one  day  and  one  night.  For  that 
time  he  is  practically  the  head  of  affairs,  but  for  no  longer, 
nor  is  he  again  eligible.  If  Lysimachus  is  a  councillor,  he 
will  thus  have  365  chances  out  of  500  of  passing  the  chair. 
No  legislative  proposal  can  come  before  the  Assembly  which 
the  Council  has  not  previously  discussed ;  but  nothing  which 
the  Council  alone  decides  has  any  validity.  In  this  large  body 
of  500,  annually  changed,  the  Athenians  found  another  means 
of  training  thousands  of  citizens  for  intelligent  public  action. 

The  Assembly,  the  whole  body  of  full  citizens,  meets  four 
times  in  the  month,  on  days  advertised  by  the  presiding 
committee  of  the  Council.  It  may  be  also  specially  summoned 
by  crier  and  trumpet.  Traditionally  it  meets  in  the  semi- 
circular space  on  the  hill  called  the  Pnyx,  and  seats  itself  as 
best  it  can.  Nevertheless  it  might  meet  elsewhere,  and  even 
in  the  Peiraeus.  After  the  completion  of  the  theatre  that 
building  formed  a  particularly  comfortable  and  convenient 
place  of  assembly. 

Early  in  the  morning  a  flag  is  lifted  over  the  place  of 
meeting,  and  male  citizens  of  all  classes  and  ages,  from  twenty 
upwards,  stroll  or  hasten  to  the  entrances.  There  they  pass 
before  the  eyes  of  watchful  scrutineers,  specially  appointed 
to  see  that  there  is  no  intruder  or  disqualified  person  among 
them.  Each  fairly  punctual  comer  receives  a  token,  which 
he  can  exchange  at  the  close  of  the  meeting  for  his  fee,  the 


166 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP, 


sum  of  fourpence-halfpenny  in  Attic  money.  A  sacrifice  of 
purification  takes  place,  and  the  herald  reads  a  formula  of 
cursing  upon  all  who  may  speak  with  treasonable  or  corrupt 
motives.  Ten  persons,  with  a  chairman,  are  chosen  by  lot  from 
the  members  of  the  Council,  and  these  preside  over  the  meeting. 
They  group  themselves  on  the  steps  of  the  platform  on  the  Pnyx, 
of  which  we  have  still  the  remains.  The  police-slaves,  or 
"  Scythian"  archers,  are  in  attendance  to  keep  order.  If 
there  is  no  thunder-storm  or  earthquake  or  eclipse  or  similar 
phenomenon  of  bad  omen,  the  business  now  begins.  The 
herald  reads  the  resolution  of  the  Council  which  is  to  be 
submitted  to  the  Assembly,  or,  it  may  be,  the  statement  of 
the  matter  which  the  Council  simply  lays  before  the  people. 
It  is  illegal  for  any  citizen  present  to  bring  up  any  new 
business  which  has  not  been  thus  previously  discussed  by 
the  Council,  and  a  violation  of  this  rule  will  certainly  lead 
to  dangerous  prosecution.  The  citizen  will  have  plenty  of 
opportunity  to  move  either  an  amendment  or  the  direct 
opposite  of  the  Council's  resolution ;  but  there  must  be 
nothing  suddenly  sprung  upon  the  meeting.  The  Athenians 
believed  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  popular  will,  but  not  in  a 
popular  will  hastily  and  inconsiderately  formed.  The  question 
is  next  asked :  "  Will  the  Assembly  accept  the  Council's 
proposal,  or  shall  there  be  a  debate  1 "  A  show  of  hands  is 
taken,  and,  if  a  debate  is  called  for,  the  herald  cries,  "  Who 
wishes  to  speak  ? "  In  reply,  any  person  present  may  come 
forward  towards  the  platform,  and,  though  it  is  not  very 
clear  what  would  happen  if  several  arrived  at  once,  the  position 
is  probably  no  more  awkward  than  the  modern  practice  of 
catching  the  Speaker's  eye  in  Parliament,  or  the  chairman's  at 
a  public  meeting.  Naturally  at  Athens,  as  elsewhere,  there 
were  a  certain  number  of  prominent  individuals  who  were 
always  to  the  front,  and  these  were  known  as  either  "the 
orators "  or  "  the  comers  forward."  The  audience  had  its 
favourites,  was  not  gifted  with  much  patience  or  consideration, 
and  therefore,  in  a  large  measure,  frightened  away  the  in- 
competent speaker. 

There  was,  strictly  speaking,  nothing  at  Athens  correspond- 
ing to  our  party  system.  The  only  real  cleavages  of  policy 
were  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  and  were  almost  entirely 
financial.    The  rich,  objecting  to  the  drain  upon  their  purses, 


XIII 


COUNCIL  AND  ASSEMBLY 


167 


were  inclined  to  be  reactionary,  and  sometimes  attempted 
oligarchical  revolutions ;  the  poor  were  prone  to  encourage  in 
their  own  interests  a  large  public  expenditure  drawn  from  the 
contributions  of  the  wealthy.  So  far,  it  is  true,  there  were 
two  parties,  or  rather  two  sentiments ;  but  there  was  no 
systematic  party  system  or  discipline,  because  there  was  no 
such  thing  as  a  Ministry,  or  a  threatened  dissolution,  or  any 
other  of  those  considerations  which  in  modern  times  bring  a 
party  together  on  every  question  in  defiance  of  conscientious 
individual  judgment.  You  would,  it  is  true,  have  always 
found  in  the  Athenian  Assembly  some  man  of  eloquence  or 
force  of  character  who  specially  voiced  the  sentiments  of  the 
poorer  majority.  He  was  known  as  the  "  popular  champion," 
and  since,  in  our  period,  he  represented  the  majority,  he  was 
said  to  "  command  the  stone,"  that  is  to  say,  the  platform  in 
the  Assembly. 

After  this  digression,  let  us  return  to  the  order  of  pro- 
ceedings. A  speaker,  having  mounted  the  platform,  is  first 
of  all  crowned  with  a  wreath,  which  at  Athens  is  the  outward 
and  visible  sign  of  temporary  authority  and  a  claim  to  security 
of  person.  It  serves  somewhat  the  purpose  of  a  judge's  wig. 
He  is  required  to  speak  to  the  subject,  which  he  may  support 
or  oppose  or  submit  to  amendment.  He  requires  a  clear 
voice  and  command  of  language  and  gesture,  although  of  the 
last  there  must  not  be  too  much.  The  audience  is  a  difficult 
one  to  deal  with.  It  yells  its  disapproval,  it  bawls  for  him 
to  come  down,  it  whistles  or  it  applauds  with  shouts  and 
clapping  of  hands.  If  he  mispronounces,  it  mocks  him.  He 
must  be  relevant  and  interesting,  or  else  he  gets  no  hearing. 
If  he  has  a  proposal  or  amendment  to  move,  he  puts  it  in 
writing,  and  has  it  clearly  read  to  the  assembly.  But  if  he 
moves  anything  which  is  in  conflict  with  some  existing  law, 
without  waiting  for  that  law  to  be  repealed,  he  lays  himself 
open  to  an  action  for  unconstitutional  procedure. 

When  the  speaking  is  over,  the  president  puts  the  matter  to 
the  vote  by  show  of  hands.  Voting  by  ballot  occurs  only  in 
cases  which  directly  affect  an  individual.  If  the  president  sees 
anything  unconstitutional  in  a  proposal,  he  can  refuse  to  put 
it,  though  at  his  own  risk.  When  carried  by  the  people,  the 
resolution  is  valid  and  is  recorded  in  the  archives.  If  it  agrees 
with  the  opinion  of  the  Council  the  wording  runs,  "  On  the 


168 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  XIII 


motion  of  So-and-So  it  was  resolved  by  the  Council  and  the 
People."  If  it  differs  from  the  Council's  opinion,  or  if  the 
Council  had  expressed  no  opinion,  it  runs,  "  It  was  resolved  by 
the  People,7'  and  in  either  case  it  is  equally  final. 

And  here  we  must  stop  to  say  that  all  this  was  not  "  legisla- 
tion "  in  the  proper  sense.  It  was  not  passing  of  laws,  but 
only  of  resolutions  affecting  foreign  policy,  a  financial  measure, 
or  the  like.  Should  there  be  war  1  Should  so  many  ships  be 
manned  ?    Should  an  impeachment  be  laid  against  So-and-So  ? 

Nothing  is  more  mistaken  than  to  imagine  that  sane  people 
like  the  Athenians  would  pass  a  law,  or  set  of  laws,  in  the 
Assembly  one  day  and  overturn  them  the  next.  On  the 
contrary,  they  most  scrupulously  watched  all  resolutions,  to 
see  that  they  contained  nothing  in  violation  of  existing  laws. 
If  you  wished  a  law  to  be  changed,  or  a  new  law  introduced, 
you  had  your  suggestion  posted  up  in  the  Agora  side  by  side 
with  the  law  already  existing.  It  was  then  referred  to  a  large 
court  of  citizens  qualified  to  be  jurymen,  who  act  in  this  case 
as  a  judicial  committee  of  the  people.  Before  this  court  the 
old  law  is  arraigned ;  it  is,  however,  upheld  by  speakers  chosen 
for  the  purpose  as  counsel  for  the  defence ;  the  court  gives  a 
decision  as  to  the  desirability  of  a  change  in  the  law,  and  its 
decision  is  regarded  as  the  will  of  the  people.  All  this  takes 
time,  and  is  a  most  salutary  check  on  hasty  or  turbulent 
legislation.  When  we  speak  of  Athens  as  exercising  a  perpetual 
referendum,  we  must  accept  the  expression  in  this  sense. 

When  business  is  done,  the  Assembly  is  dismissed  by  the 
presidents,  the  holders  of  tickets  exchange  them  for  their  fee,  the 
flag  is  hauled  down,  and  the  people  disperse  to  their  occupations 
or  amusements. 

It  remains  to  say  that  the  people  were  not  always  particularly 
eager  to  attend  the  Assembly.  In  some  cases  the  police  were 
sent  along  the  Agora  dragging  a  rope  smeared  with  red  chalk, 
and  the  citizens  were  driven  before  it  towards  the  place  of 
assembly  ;  any  one  whose  clothes  were  found  marked  with  red 
was  either  actually  fined  or  at  least  denied  his  fee.  Unfortun- 
ately we  do  not  know  on  what  occasions,  or  under  what  law, 
this  could  be  done.  It  was  certainly  not  the  usual  proceeding, 
and  that  is  nearly  all  we  can  say  concerning  it. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


AN  ATHENIAN  TRIAL 

Our  friend  Lysimachus  can  hardly  live  his  life  at  Athens 
without  experiencing  some  action  at  law.  Never  was  there  a 
community  more  litigious.  A  character  in  Aristophanes,  to 
whom  a  map  is  being  shown,  asks  which  is  Attica.  When  it  is 
pointed  out,  he  refuses  to  believe,  because  he  cannot  "  see  any 
lawsuits  going  on."  A  man  must  be  engaged  in  very  little 
public  or  private  business,  or  must  be  somewhat  lacking  in 
spirit,  if  he  does  not  at  some  time  appear  as  either  plaintiff 
or  defendant.  If  he  is  not  suing  or  being  sued  in  some  civil 
action,  he  is  prosecuting  or  being  prosecuted  on  some  public 
indictment. 

It  is  very  interesting  to  contemplate  an  Athenian  trial 
conducted  in  a  community  which  possessed  no  legal  profession, 
no  bench  of  specially  trained  judges,  and  no  bar  of  specially 
trained  lawyers.  We  shall  assume  that  the  trial  takes  place 
about  the  middle  of  our  period,  and  we  shall  not  overburden 
the  account  with  detail.  Lysimachus,  let  us  imagine,  brings 
an  action  against  a  certain  Isagoras.  Very  small  pecuniary 
cases  are  settled  by  a  standing  court  of  forty  men,  elected  by 
lot  for  the  year ;  but,  where  serious  interests  are  involved,  the 
matter  is  first  referred  to  one  of  the  public  arbitrators,  a  lay- 
man, who  must  be  sixty  years  of  age,  and  his  efforts  will  be  to 
adjust  the  difficulty.  If  either  party  refuses  to  accept  the 
arbitrator's  decision,  the  case  will  come  before  one  of  those 
great  juries  which  are  among  the  most  striking  features  of  the 
Athenian  democracy.  Public  and  criminal  prosecutions  will  in 
all  cases  come  before  such  a  jury. 

We  will  suppose  that  the  action  of  Lysimachus  against 

169 


170 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Isagoras  is  a  public  action.  Perhaps  Isagoras  is  charged  with 
perjury  or  with  some  sort  of  breach  of  the  peace,  which  both 
affects  our  friend  the  prosecutor  and  also  the  law  and  order  of 
the  state. 

Well,  Lysimachus,  attended  by  two  witnesses,  first  summons 
Isagoras  to  appear  before  a  certain  recognised  official  on  a 
certain  day.  That  official  is  not  the  judge,  and  has  nothing 
to  do  with  trying  the  case,  beyond  subsequently  introducing  it 
to  the  court,  presiding  during  the  sitting,  and  seeing  that  the 
order  of  the  court  is  executed.  The  circumstances  are  stated 
before  him,  and  if  the  official  finds  the  case  prima  facie  good — 
or  a  "  true  bill  " — he  has  the  matter  prepared  for  the  court. 
These  are  his  proceedings.  He  hears  no  arguing  and  gives  no 
judgment.  The  plea  is  entered  and  sworn  to  ;  its  answer  is 
entered  and  sworn  to ;  witnesses  on  either  side  make  their 
statements,  which  are  put  in  writing,  signed,  and  sworn  to. 
These  documents,  together  with  passages  cited  from  the  laws, 
are  then  sealed  up  in  a  special  box,  called  for  some  reason  or 
other  "the  hedgehog."  A  day  is  appointed  for  the  trial,  the 
order  of  precedence  being  determined  by  lot.  The  official  then 
takes  charge  of  the  box,  and  no  further  evidence  will  be 
admitted. 

Next  for  the  trial  proper.  At  the  beginning  of  the  official 
year  a  list  has  been  drawn  up  of  about  5000  persons,  all  of 
them  over  thirty  years  of  age,  ready  to  act  as  jurors  for  that 
year.  These  are  divided  into  ten  sections,  or  panels,  of  about 
500  members  each,  and  each  member  receives  a  token  or  pass 
marked  with  the  number  of  his  panel.  When  a  case  is  to  be 
tried,  it  will  be  tried  by  one  or  other  of  these  panels,  but  not 
necessarily  in  its  full  strength.  There  may  be  201,  or  the 
whole  501,  or  some  other  number,  presumably  determined  by 
the  importance  of  the  case.  The  juryman  is  not  compelled  to 
attend ;  he  is  generally  only  too  willing  to  take  part  for  the 
sake  of  the  fee  or  of  the  business.  In  very  great  cases  you  might 
have  a  combination  of  two  full  panels  with  1001.  And  be  it 
understood  that  these  men  are  just  plain  respectable  citizens,  and 
that  they  are  to  be  both  judge  and  jury,  to  decide  on  the  law 
and  the  facts,  and  in  many  instances  on  the  penalty.  The 
theory  of  Athenian  democracy  was  that  judicial  decisions 
belonged,  like  the  deliberative,  to  the  whole  people ;  but  in 
practice  it  was  soon  found  necessary  for  the  people  thus  to 


XIV 


AN  ATHENIAN  TRIAL 


171 


delegate  its  powers  in  this  respect  to  a  large  jury — a  large 
representative  committee  of  itself,  a  smaller  but  faithful  copy 
of  itself. 

The  jurymen  have  all  taken  an  oath  to  judge  legally  and 
without  corruption  or  bias.  Nevertheless  there  must  be  a  safe- 
guard against  the  bribery  which  was  the  most  rampant  public 
vice  of  Athens.  The  manner  of  preventing  the  bribing  of  a  jury 
— if  its  mere  size  is  not  enough — is  this.  The  trial  lasts  but  a 
day.  It  is  unknown  beforehand  which  panel  is  to  try  the  case 
of  Lysimachus  versus  Isagoras.  On  the  morning  of  the  trial, 
the  general  body  of  jurymen  meets  in  the  Agora,  and  the 
jury  for  a  particular  case  is  drawn  by  lot.  Its  members 
proceed  to  a  particular  court-house  assigned  to  them — the 
"  Middle  Court,"  or  the  "  Red  Court,"  or  the  "  Hole-and-Corner 
Court,"  or  perhaps  to  the  "  Hall  of  Song,"  or  the  "Painted 
Colonnade."  Each  is  provided  with  a  coloured  baton  of  office 
and  his  token.  On  showing  these  he  receives  a  ticket,  which 
he  will  give  up  at  the  end  of  the  case,  receiving  in  exchange  a 
fee  of  three  obols,  or  fourpence-halfpenny  Attic,  for  his  day's 
services. 

On  entering,  the  jurymen  arrange  themselves  on  benches 
covered  with  mats  ;  the  introducing  official  presides  on  a  dais ; 
to  the  right  and  left  of  him  are  two  platforms,  from  which  the 
parties  will  speak.  The  general  public  are  fenced  off  by  a  rail, 
and  the  public  slaves,  or  police,  keep  order. 

A  large  water-clock  stands  in  the  court  and  is  attended  by 
an  officer,  who  will  set  it  running  when  bidden  and  also  check 
the  flow  when  bidden.  In  most  instances,  though  not  in  all, 
the  length  of  time  allotted  to  a  speech  is  limited,  or,  as  it  was 
expressed,  the  speaking  was  done  "  with  measured-out  day." 
A  sacrifice  is  made,  the  "  hedgehog  "  box  is  unsealed,  the  clerk 
reads  the  accusation  and  reply,  and  Lysimachus  mounts  his 
platform  and  pleads.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  that  he  should 
do  this  in  person.  If  he  is  himself  no  speaker,  he  may  have 
got  what  was  called  a  "  speech-writer " — one  of  the  class  of 
which  Demosthenes  became  the  perfection — to  compose  a  speech 
for  him,  which  he  will  learn  by  heart.  This,  of  course,  is 
indirectly  employing  counsel.  Or,  after  making  a  brief  and 
unadorned  statement,  he  may,  with  the  consent  of  the  court, 
be  followed  by  a  more  eloquent  supporter,  or  perhaps  two. 
Although  such  supporters  are  theoretically  always  personal 


172 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


friends  assisting  gratuitously  and  from  genuine  sympathy  with 
his  case,  in  reality  they  are  generally  nothing  but  mere  expert 
pleaders.  When  Lysimachus  calls  witnesses,  it  simply  means 
that  the  signed  evidence  is  taken  from  the  box  and  read,  while 
the  witness  himself,  wThen  called  up,  says  nothing,  but  merely 
signifies  that  he  vouches  for  what  is  written.  There  is  no 
cross-examining,  and,  it  may  be  as  well  to  add,  consequently  no 
badgering.  Lysimachus  then  sits  down,  and  Isagoras  rises  on 
his  own  platform  and  speaks  for  himself  with  or  without  sup- 
porters, and  with  evidence  produced  in  the  same  way.  Some- 
times a  second  speech  is  made  on  each  side.  This  done,  a 
person  chosen  by  lot  proceeds  to  distribute  to  the  jurymen  their 
voting  checks.  Each  juryman  receives  two  checks,  one  for  con- 
demnation and  one  for  acquittal.  He  is  to  use  which  he  chooses. 
In  the  court  stands  a  large  urn,  with  a  narrow  mouth,  for  the 
reception  of  the  actual  vote ;  at  a  little  distance  is  a  wide- 
mouthed  vessel,  into  which  the  other  and  unused  check  is  to  be 
thrown.  Now,  as  the  voting  is  secret,  how  can  all  this  be  done 
in  open  court  ?  The  device  is  ingenious  and  simple.  The  voting 
checks  are  flat  discs  of  metal,  through  the  middle  of  which 
passes  a  short  axle.  In  one  check  the  axle  is  hollow — an  open 
pipe ;  in  the  other  it  is  solid.  The  hollow  condemns,  the  solid 
acquits.  The  juryman  approaches  the  urn  with  the  ends  of  the 
axle  held  between  his  fingers,  and  no  one  but  himself  can  tell 
whether  it  is  the  solid  or  the  hollow  check  which  he  is  holding. 
He  drops  this  into  an  opening  so  narrow  that  he  could  not  drop 
in  two  at  once  if  he  tried.  He  then  passes  to  the  second  vessel 
and  throws  in  the  waste  check.  When  all  have  paraded,  the 
first  urn  is  turned  out  upon  the  stone  table,  the  hollow  checks 
are  sorted  from  the  solid,  a  count  is  made,  and  the  verdict 
announced. 

We  will  suppose  that  the  hollow  checks  are  the  more 
numerous,  and  that  Isagoras  is  condemned.  Where  there  is  a 
statutory  penalty  this  is  the  end  of  the  trial.  But  there  are 
cases  in  which  no  penalty  has  been  already  determined  by  law. 
This,  let  us  assume,  is  one  of  them.  Lysimachus,  therefore, 
when  bringing  his  action  against  Isagoras,  has  been  obliged  to 
specify  the  penalty  which  he  thinks  ought  to  be  exacted.  It 
may,  for  example,  be  a  fine,  or  disfranchisement,  or  banishment, 
or  death.  It  will  not  be  imprisonment,  for  the  Athenians  only 
used  the  prison  as  a  place  of  detention  until  a  fine  was  paid  or 


XIV 


AN  ATHENIAN  TRIAL 


173 


some  other  sentence  was  executed.  Isagoras  being  already 
condemned,  it  now  remains  to  consider  the  penalty,  and  speeches 
are  made  by  the  two  sides  on  this  question.  Lysimachus  pro- 
poses the  most  severe  that  he  thinks  the  jury  will  accept ; 
Isagoras  proposes  the  lightest.  The  jury  must  necessarily 
accept  the  one  or  the  other.  When  Socrates  was  on  his  trial 
and  had  been  condemned,  his  opponents  proposed  death  ;  he 
himself  was  inclined  to  propose  that  he  should  receive  "  free 
board  at  the  public  expense  " ;  but,  on  the  advice  of  his  friends, 
he  ultimately  named  a  fine  of  £120.  It  was  a  common  practice 
for  the  defendant  to  bring  into  court  his  children  or  other  persons 
dependent  on  him,  and  endeavour  to  mollify  the  jury  through 
their  tears. 

The  speeches — shorter  in  this  case — being  made,  the  jury  pro- 
ceeds to  vote,  either  as  before  or  by  another  device.  Instead  of 
checks  they  may  receive  one  waxed  tablet  each.  A  line  drawn 
lengthwise  on  this  means  the  greater  penalty,  drawn  breadthwise 
it  means  the  smaller. 

After  the  decision,  Isagoras  is  led  off  by  the  police-officers 
and  detained  in  prison  until  performance  of  whatever  the  court 
has  ordered.  But,  if  the  penalty  were  death,  he  would  on  a 
certain  day  be  made  to  drink  a  cup  of  hemlock,  of  which  the 
effect  is  to  benumb  the  body  gradually,  with  the  minimum  of 
pain  or  distress,  from  the  feet  to  the  heart.  This  is  the  regular 
form  of  capital  punishment  at  Athens,  except  for  the  lowest 
criminals.  For  them  it  took  the  barbarous  shape  of  thrashing 
to  death  with  cudgels. 

There  perhaps  appears  not  much  to  commend  in  the  form  of 
an  Athenian  trial.  We  are  avoiding  comment  as  far  as  possible, 
but  it  may  be  well  to  point  out  one  or  two  considerations.  In 
the  first  place,  Athenian  law  was  comparatively  clear  and 
definite,  and  not  beyond  the  understanding  of  any  intelligent 
Athenian.  In  the  second,  every  attempt  was  made,  in  civil 
cases,  to  get  the  matter  settled  by  arbitration.  In  the  third, 
reckless  litigation  was  checked  by  the  knowledge  that,  if  the 
plaintiff  in  a  private  suit  lost  his  case,  he  paid  the  expenses,  and 
if  he  did  not  obtain  one-fifth  of  the  votes,  he  was  fined  to  boot. 
In  a  public  prosecution,  in  the  same  circumstances  he  was  fined 
1000  Attic  drachmae,  or  £40.  In  the  fourth  place,  every 
Athenian  acquired,  by  habitual  attendance  at  the  court  and  in 
the  Assembly,  such  a  ready  grasp  of  points  as  one  would  hardly 


174 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  XIV 


find  in  a  modern  jury,  but  would  rather  look  for  in  a  profes- 
sional lawyer.  No  doubt  there  were  appeals  to  passion,  but 
hardly  more  so  than  in  addresses  to  a  modern  jury.  On  the 
whole,  we  may  doubt  whether  the  verdict  of  a  casual  modern 
twelve  is  much  better  than  the  verdict  of  a  casual  Athenian  five 
hundred.  The  real  evil  was  rather  that  the  existence  of  the 
system  bred  an  army  of  blackmailers,  who  were  always  spying 
upon  wealthy  or  prominent  persons  and  threatening  to  bring 
some  action,  or  at  least  trouble  their  peace,  unless  they  were 
bought  off. 


CHAPTER  XV 


BURIAL 

The  latest  and  worst  misfortune  that  could  befall  a  human 
being  was  to  be  left  an  unburied  and  unhonoured  corpse. 
Charon  would  not  receive  you  into  his  boat,  and  your  poor 
ghost  was  left  to  shiver,  helpless  and  miserable,  between  the 
confines  of  the  two  worlds.  To  be  buried  without  honour  and 
to  occupy  a  neglected  tomb  meant  that  your  wretched  ghost 
became  a  pariah  among  the  departed.  A  first  duty  of  the 
relatives  was  therefore  to  pay  to  the  deceased  what  were  known 
as  the  "  dues  "  or  "  rights."  In  the  first  place  the  eyelids  were 
carefully  closed,  the  body  was  washed  and  anointed  with  per- 
fumes, fillets  and  a  garland  of  flowers  were  wreathed  round  the 
head,  and  usually  a  silver  or  copper  coin  was  placed  in  the  mouth. 
And  here  for  a  moment  we  must  digress.  We  must  carry 
ourselves  back  from  our  cultured  Athenian  days  to  a  stage  of 
human  development  in  which  it  is  imagined  that  the  departed 
are  simply  making  a  journey  to  another  world  in  which  they 
will  require  the  same  things  which  they  required  in  this  life — 
food,  clothing,  money,  armour,  vessels,  and  the  like,  and,  in  the 
case  of  children,  dolls  and  playthings.  In  the  case  of  women 
an  indispensable  article  was  a  mirror.  At  that  early  stage  it 
was  well  understood  why  such  articles  were  buried  with  the 
body.  But,  as  we  all  know,  in  matters  of  custom  and  sentiment 
practices  are  long  kept  up  when  their  meaning  is  lost,  and  when 
fanciful  reasons  are  wont  to  be  invented  in  place  of  true 
reasons  forgotten. 

The  coin  placed  in  the  mouth  of  the  departed  was  com- 
monly explained  as  intended  to  pay  the  fee  due  to  Charon  for 
ferrying  the  ghost  over  the  river  Styx.     Originally  it  was 

175 


176 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


simply  a  provision  of  money.  But  why  put  it  in  the  mouth  ? 
Because,  unsavoury  proceeding  as  it  may  appear,  a  common 
way  of  holding  small  change  in  antiquity  was  to  pouch  it  in 
your  cheeks,  somewhat  after  the  style  of  monkeys.  Any  day 
in  the  Athenian  market  it  would  be  possible  to  see  one  of  the 
poorer  classes,  on  receiving  small  coins,  pop  these  into  his 
mouth,  until  he  could  more  conveniently  dispose  of  them.  So 
much  for  "  Charon's  obol." 

The  body  is  now  clothed  in  fine  white  raiment,  and  laid 
upon  a  couch  spread  with  rich  clothes  and  scattered  with 
marjoram.  The  feet  are  turned  towards  the  door.  Close  by 
are  tables,  upon  which  are  placed  the  slender  and  graceful 
vessels  which  must  always  go  into  the  grave,  and  also  such 
other  things  as  are  thought  fit,  including  a  honey-cake,  which 
was  popularly  regarded  as  a  sop  to  be  given  to  Cerberus,  the 
three-headed  watch-dog  of  Hades.  Around  are  the  kinsfolk, 
lamenting  according  to  a  conventional  and  orthodox  method, 
whether  with  deep  earnestness  or  without.  This  lying-in-state 
was  of  course  meant  for  honour  to  the  corpse,  but  there  is  little 
doubt  that  it  was  also  once  intended  as  an  assurance  to  all 
concerned  that  the  man  was  really  dead,  and  that  he  had  died 
without  foul  play. 

History  does  but  repeat  itself  when  in  modern  times  we 
send  wreaths  to  a  funeral.  This  was  regularly  done  by  friends 
and  relatives  at  Athens.  It  is  recorded  of  a  certain  professional 
beauty,  to  whom  one  of  her  suitors  kept  sending  flowers  instead 
of  the  more  substantial  presents  which  she  expected,  that  she 
reminded  him  she  was  "  not  yet  a  corpse  untimely  dead." 

If,  passing  along  the  Athenian  streets,  you  were  to  see  an 
earthenware  vessel  containing  water  placed  outside  a  door,  you 
might  conclude  that  there  was  a  lying- in -state  within,  and, 
if  you  waited,  you  would  see  each  friend  or  kinsman,  as  he 
came  out,  sprinkle  himself  therefrom.  This  action,  partly 
sanitary,  has  become  purely  symbolic. 

On  the  following  day,  before  sun-up,  comes  what  was  called 
the  "  carrying-out,"  or  funeral  procession.  The  body,  still  lying 
on  the  couch,  is  carried  through  the  streets,  either  in  a  vehicle 
or  on  the  shoulders  of  friends  or  slaves,  to  a  place  outside  the 
walls.  Just  in  front  will  march  the  male  mourners,  and  the 
female  mourners  just  behind.  These  have  cut  their  hair  short 
and  are  dressed  in  black.    If  the  defunct  was  a  person  of  means, 


XV 


BURIAL 


177 


his  destination  will  probably  be  the  road  which  runs  through 
the  suburb  Cerameicus,  or  else  some  other  equally  frequented. 
If  poor  or  a  slave,  he  must  be  buried  in  the  necropolis,  outside 
the  gate  as  you  go  to  the  harbour-town  of  Peiraeus.  With  the 
body  will  be  carried  the  tables  full  of  vases  and  other  articles 
shown  in  the  illustration.  In  front,  or  behind,  will  walk 
professional  dirge-singers,  principally  women  from  Asia  Minor 
hired  for  the  purpose.  These  not  only  chant  as  they  walk 
to  the  accompaniment  of  a  flute,  but  also  go  through  symbolical 
performances  of  rending  the  garments,  beating  the  breast,  and 
tearing  the  hair  and  cheeks.  In  early  days  such  extravagant 
demonstrations  were  expected  in  real  earnest  of  the  real 
mourners,  relatives,  and  slaves,  but  at  our  date  these  were 
expressly  forbidden  by  law  to  Athenian  citizens. 

When  the  procession  reaches  its  destination,  the  body  is 
either  buried  or  cremated.  The  two  methods  went  on  side  by 
side ;  but  cremation  was  the  more  expensive,  and,  therefore, 
naturally  the  less  frequent.  If  you  were  cremated,  the  bones 
and  ashes — which  are  easily  distinguishable  from  those  of  the 
fuel — were  gathered  together  by  the  nearest  relatives,  washed 
in  wine,  and  placed  in  a  vessel  of  bronze  or  earthenware,  which 
again  was  placed  in  the  family  tomb.  If  you  were  buried,  a 
coffin  was  usual,  though  not  necessary,  and  this  might  be  made 
of  wood,  but  was  more  commonly  of  earthenware.  To  have 
"  one  foot  in  the  coffin "  is  a  Greek  proverb  which  we  have 
borrowed.  On  the  funeral  pyre,  or  into  the  grave,  are 
generally  thrown  vessels,  ornaments,  sometimes  garments,  and 
other  expensive  gifts.  It  was  a  point  of  sentiment  to  burn  or 
bury  with  the  body  anything  which  had  been  specially  affected 
in  life. 

It  now  remains  for  the  procession  to  return  home  to  a 
ceremonial  meal,  at  which  the  chief  feature  will  be  a  series  of 
eulogies  of  the  dead  man  and  his  virtues.  The  resemblance 
between  this  proceeding  and  an  Irish  wake,  despite  all  the  differ- 
ences of  taste,  is  too  obvious  to  miss.  The  explanation  is  that 
the  ceremonies  were  of  common  origin. 

Meanwhile  it  is  worth  while  to  glance  at  the  nature  of  the 
tombs  or  monuments  which  lined  the  road  to  the  Academy  or 
some  other  egress  from  Athens.  These  were  mostly  in  excellent 
taste.    They  were  by  no  means  all  alike.    On  an  elevation 

N 


178 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


made  of  earth  and  stones  were  sometimes  erected  upright  slabs 
of  stone,  chiefly  with  gable  tops  and  with  reliefs  carved  on  their 
fronts ;  sometimes  round  pillars  with  ornamental  heads  sur- 
mounted a  number  of  steps;  sometimes  actual  buildings  shaped 
like  small  temples  were  built  with  columns  and  roofs.  The 
reliefs  which  such  monuments  bear  have  nothing  vulgarly 
sentimental  about  them.    Artistically  they  are  often  admirable, 


Fig.  75.—  Relief  on  a  tomb  ;  parting  scene. 


though  in  many  cases  they  are  the  comparatively  crude  work 
of  the  monumental  mason.  By  preference  they  represented  the 
character  or  pursuits  of  the  deceased  by  means  of  typical  scenes 
in  his  life,  The  young  cavalryman  is  seen  on  horseback 
striking  down  the  enemy  \  the  kindly  parent  is  seen  with  his 
children  at  a  family  meal ;  the  workman  is  seen  at  his  work  ; 
the  endeared  old  nurse  is  receiving  the  parting  handshake  of 
her  former  nurselings.  A  water-pot  on  the  tomb  of  a  girl  was 
taken  to  mean  "died  unmarried." 

Inscriptions  are  few  and  brief.  Usually  the  name  of  the 
deceased  and  of  his  father — that  is  to  say,  his  official  name — 
sufficed.  There  was  no  epitaph  setting  forth  his  virtues,  except 
that  sometimes  there  was  added  the  single  Greek  word  which 
means  "  a  good  man  "  or  "  a  good  woman  "  as  the  case  might 
be.    At  a  later  date,  or  in  other  parts  of  Greece,  or  among 


XV 


BURIAL 


179 


foreigners  at  Athens,  there  were,  it  is  true,  longer  inscriptions, 
regularly  written  in  a  special  form  of  epigrammatic  verse ;  but 
they  were  altogether  the  exception  in  the  case  of  the  classical 
Athenian  proper.  Theophrastus  observes,  in  satire  of  the 
character  called  the  "  Officious  Man,"  that  he  "  will  inscribe 
upon  a  deceased  woman's  tombstone  the  name  of  her  husband, 


Fig.  76.— Ceremony  at  tomb. 


of  her  father,  of  her  mother,  as  well  as  her  own,  with  the  place 
of  her  birth ;  recording  further  that  4  all  these  were  estimable 
persons.' " 

If  we  follow  the  bereaved  family  home,  we  shall  find  that 
they  regard  it  as  a  duty  to  carry  offerings  and  decorations  to 
the  tomb,  and  to  perform  certain  domestic  ceremonies  on  at 
least  the  third,  the  ninth,  and  the  thirtieth  day  after  the  death, 
and  also  on  the  birthday  of  the  deceased.    An  illustration  of 


180 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  XV 


such  pious  performance  may  here  be  shown  ;  it  is  notable  that 
in  it  the  dead  person  is  represented  as  if  present.  To  neglect 
the  tomb  of  your  ancestors  was  so  far  a  crime  that  no  man 
could  become  a  chief  officer  of  the  state  who  could  be  proved  to 
have  failed  in  this  respect.  And,  lastly,  when  the  Greeks  in 
Aeschylus  cheer  each  other  on  to  fight  with  the  overwhelming 
numbers  of  the  Persians,  one  chief  incentive  is  to  "  set  free  the 
tombs  of  the  forefathers." 


Fig.  77.— Laying  out  the  dead. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 

An  adequate  account  of  Athenian  art  would  involve  the  treat- 
ment of  Athenian  music,  painting,  sculpture  in  its  various 
branches,  and  architecture.  It  would  involve  also  the  mention 
of  many  dates  and  persons,  accompanied  with  a  long  list  of 
technical  terms. 

But  our  purpose  is  not  to  accumulate  a  set  of  undigested, 
and  perhaps  indigestible,  facts  and  speculations,  but  to  bring 
home  as  distinctly  as  possible  the  special  quality  and  character 
of  Attic  art.  If  we  speak  of  Attic  fine  art,  we  must  not  waste 
time  with  vague  rhetoric  and  rhapsodies  of  admiration.  There 
is  nothing  about  which  it  is  so  easy  to  talk  for  hours,  and  yet 
say  nothing  definite  and  understandable  after  all,  as  "art." 
And  perhaps  there  is  nothing  about  which  it  is  more  difficult  to 
communicate  to  other  minds  exactly  what  one  sees  and  feels, 
than  this  same  "  art." 

We  may  limit  our  treatment  of  the  subject  almost  entirely 
to  that  branch  of  Attic  art  which  was  most  characteristic  and 
most  perfect — the  art  of  sculpture — the  art  in  which  no  modern 
has  ever  equalled  Pheidias,  Praxiteles,  or  Lysippus.  The 
forceful  Michael  Angelo  on  the  one  hand,  the  smooth  Canova 
on  the  other,  have  perhaps  in  their  best  examples  rivalled  the 
Greeks  of  the  decline.  Nevertheless,  the  pre-eminence  of 
Pheidias  and  Praxiteles  remains  unassailed,  and  seems  likely  to 
remain  so  for  ever. 

As  regards  architecture,  it  is  a  commonplace  to  tell  how 
pure  in  conception  ajjd  sometimes  how  magnificent  in  impres- 
siveness  was  a  building  like  the  Parthenon  on  the  hill-top  of 
Athens.    But  this  classical  style  of  building  is  imitable,  and 

181 


182 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


was  freely  and  not  unsuccessfully  imitated,  perhaps  even 
successfully  modified,  in  many  parts  of  the  Graeco-Roman  world ; 
it  could,  perhaps,  be  reproduced  tolerably  to-day  ;  while  that 
Avhich  really  distinguished  the  Parthenon  as  the  queen  of 
edifices  was  rather  its  sculptures  on  frieze  and  pediment  than  its 
merely  architectural  style.  Nor  is  Attic  architecture,  though 
unsurpassable  in  its  own  kind,  necessarily  the  consummation  of 
the  art  of  building.  The  Gothic  of  Cologne  Cathedral  and 
Giotto's  tower  at  Florence  are,  we  may  surely  admit,  as  high  in 
the  scale  of  artistic  conception  and  performance. 

We  may  therefore  make  but  a  passing  reference  here  to 
architecture,  although  it  is  well  to  point  out  how,  like  other 
arts,  it  conformed  in  principle  to  the  invariable  Greek  demand 
for  perfection  of  a  noble  simplicity. 

On  Greek  painting  we  need  but  make  a  note.  The  names 
of  Polygnotus  and  Zeuxis  are  to  us  but  names.  We  are  not,  it 
is  true,  without  such  literary  description  of  their  works  as  to 
show  that  a  Polygnotus  was  capable  of  large  and  complicated 
designs  in  fresco,  such  as  he  created  on  the  "  Painted  Porch  "  of 
Athens  and  in  the  loggia  at  Delphi ;  that  he  was  a  brilliant 
colourist ;  and  that  he  could  paint  not  merely  the  body  but  in 
some  degree  the  soul  that  informed  it.  We  are  told  in  the  old 
story  that  Zeuxis  and  Parrhasios  could  paint  so  realistically 
as  to  deceive  the  birds  and  each  other.  Zeuxis  painted  his 
grapes  so  that  they  attracted  the  birds,  and  Parrhasios  painted 
a  curtain  so  that  Zeuxis  tried  to  draw  it  aside.  We  may 
believe  these  stories  as  little  as  we  like,  remembering  the  Greek, 
if  not  the  universal,  tendency  to  polish  up  the  marvellous  into 
its  most  telling  form.  Next  we  hear  in  the  technical  books  of 
Graeco-Roman  times  a  good  deal  about  the  management  of  light 
and  shade,  and  about  the  mixing  and  manipulating  of  colours, 
and  so  forth ;  and  everything  goes  to  show  that  the  Greek 
artists  could  draw  admirably,  produce  splendid  colour-effects, 
and  design  artistic  conceptions.  And  yet  we  may  certainly 
believe  that  in  the  deeper  virtues  of  painting  they  were  not  the 
equals  of  the  great  Italian  and  Spanish  masters,  and  that  our 
best  modern  artists  could  teach  them  much  which  they  would 
have  been  only  too  glad,  and  exceedingly  swift,  to  learn. 

As  it  happens,  all  these  Greek  paintings  of  the  higher  kind 
have  naturally  disappeared.  W e  cannot  expect  to  meet  with 
masterpieces  more  than  two  thousand  years  old.     All  we 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


183 


possess  are  rather  insignificant  frescoes  of  Graeco-Etruscan  or 
Graeco-Roman  work,  unearthed  from  Pompeii  or  elsewhere,  and 
paintings  on  vases,  which  are  often  either  not  pure  Greek  or  do 
not  represent  the  higher  efforts  of  masters. 

Of  Greek  music  we  know  but  -little.  The  Greek  ear  was 
exceedingly  well  trained,  exceedingly  acute,  in  matters  of  time 
and  pitch  ;  and  the  system  of  keys  was  something  exceedingly 
elaborate ;  but  they  knew  nothing  of  harmony,  and  we  should 
not,  at  this  date,  regard  them  as  even  tolerable  musicians. 

Athenian  music  has  vanished,  Athenian  painting  of  the 
classical  time  has  also  vanished,  Athenian  architecture  can  be 
imitated,  as  well  as  equalled  in  another  kind.  But  the  Greek 
carving  of  stone  or  casting  of  bronze  into  statues,  Greek  gem- 
engraving  and  coin-engraving,  Greek  shapes  in  pottery  and 
metal-ware ;  these  stand  alone  in  the  world  for  an  entire  and 
characteristic  perfection. 

And,  therefore,  our  few  and  salient  types  of  Athenian  art  in 
illustration  of  salient  principle  will  be  best  taken  from  sculpture. 
We  cannot  here  range  far  nor  probe  deep ;  our  task  is  to  be  as 
definite  as  it  is  possible  to  be  when  speaking  succinctly  of 
matters  so  evasive  of  expression  as  aesthetic  principles. 

The  aim  of  all  Greek  art,  in  the  day  of  its  perfection,  was 
to  express  with  a  noble  simplicity  and  truth  something  intrin- 
sically worthy  of  expression.  That  principle  was  cardinal,  and  it 
must  be  held  always  in  view.  But  there  was  in  each  art  a 
period  of  infancy,  a  period  of  development,  one  of  full  bloom  and 
maturity,  and  one  of  decay.  This  too  should  be  borne  in  mind, 
inasmuch  as  nearly  all  the  confusion  which  exists  in  the  popular 
conception  as  to  the  qualities  and  characteristics  of  Greek 
literature  or  Greek  sculpture  or  Greek  vase-painting  is  due  to  a 
confounding  of  dates  and  styles.  A  miscellaneous  collection  of 
Greek  sculptures,  without  classification  according  to  chronology, 
would  leave  the  observer  hopelessly  perplexed.  He  has  per- 
chance been  told  that  Greek  sculpture  is  especially  characterised 
by  beauty  of  form,  and  then,  when  he  comes  to  discover  many 
an  ugliness  or  stiffness  in  the  examples  before  him,  he  will 
wonder  how  such  a  doctrine  can  be  tenable.  But,  if  we  were 
to  eliminate  the  crude  apprentice-work  whereby  the  earlier 
Greeks  sought  honestly  but  ineffectually  to  body  forth  their 


184 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Apollos  and  Athenas  and  other  deities ;  if  we  were  to  label 
these  efforts  as  archaic  and  immature ;  if,  in  other  words,  we 
were  to  warn  the  observer  that  these  are  not  true  specimens  of 
Greek  art,  but  only  efforts  towards  Greek  art ;  then  we  might 
bring  him  to  see  how,  in  nearly  all  that  remained,  beauty  of 
form  was  indeed  a  constant  element. 

Or,  again,  he  has  been  told  that  Greek  sculpture  is  typical 
rather  than  individual,  and  yet,  when  he  comes  to  contemplate 
the  mixed  assemblage  of  Greek  creations  in  marble  or  bronze, 
he  may  discover  works  which  are  obviously  copies  from  some 
strongly  marked  individual  sitter,  or  some  strikingly  individual 
pose,  and,  before  he  can  understand  this  contradiction,  he  must 
needs  be  told  that  Greek  art,  like  every  other,  had  its  period  of 
decadence,  which  was  not  its  Greek  but  its  "  Hellenistic  "  and 
"  Graeco-Eoman "  period,  and  that  in  this  period  the  true 
Greek  principle  is  dying  out  of  recognition. 

We  are  therefore  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  term  "  Athenian 
art,"  if  unqualified,  means  Athenian  art  when  it  was  both  most 
characteristic  and  most  perfect ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  great  age 
which  began  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  and  lasted 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

With  this  understanding  we  may  repeat  our  text,  that  the 
aim  of  Greek  art  was  to  express  with  a  noble  simplicity  and 
truth  something  intrinsically  worthy  of  expression.  And  first 
the  thing  must  be  worthy  of  expression.  All  genuine  Athenian 
art  was  democratic.  Take  sculpture  again,  for  example.  It 
was  not,  in  the  best  days,  addressed  to  the  whim  of  a  single 
person  or  to  the  taste  of  an  illuminate  coterie.  The  artist 
appealed  to  the  great  world  and  to  the  general  heart  and  eye 
of  humanity.  But  the  world  at  large  is  not  seeking  primarily 
to  know  how  skilful  an  artist  may  be  in  the  representation 
of  this  and  that  thing  which  simply  happens  to  be  difficult  to 
represent.  Professional  artists  may  be  disproportionally 
interested  in  such  questions ;  it  is  natural  that  they  should  be. 
But  the  Athenian  community,  for  whom  the  contemporary 
artist  worked,  asked  simply  for  a  creation  upon  which  it  could 
on  all  days  and  in  all  generations  look  with  pleasure  or 
admiration  or  reverence.  Say  what  one  will  of  the  public  of 
that  democracy,  it  at  least  showed  no  taste  for  trivialities 
when  it  came  to  building  its  temples  and  adorning  its  shrines 
and  its  public  places.    The  gods,  the  exploits  of  gods  and 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


185 


men,  the  figures  of  men  and  women  serving  as  striking  types 
of  health  and  beauty — these,  together  with  such  action  as 
conduced  to  the  display  of  dignity,  majesty,  beauty,  and  health, 
were  subjects  of  sculpture.  Noble  deaths  too  have  their  place. 
But  there  is  no  place  for  the  representation,  however  dexterous, 
however  consummate,  of  things  lewd  and  prurient,  of  the  vile 
and  ugly,  of  human  indignity  and  vulgarity.  If  you  had  told 
the  Athenians — as  you  would  have  had  a  perfect  right  to  do — 
that  art  means  representation,  they  would  not  have  denied  it. 
If  you  had  said  that  therefore  art  was  just  as  much  art  whether 
it  bodied  forth  the  noble  or  the  mean,  the  sublime  or  the 
ludicrous,  they  might  have  admitted  it.  But  they  would  have 
said  that,  inasmuch  as  the  choice  lay  with  the  artist  to  represent 
either  the  one  or  the  other,  it  was  wasteful  folly  for  him  to 
spend  on  the  execution  of  the  trivial  or  the  repulsive  the  gift 
which  he  might  have  been  spending  on  the  noble  or  beautiful. 
At  any  rate — and  yet  they  were  no  Puritans,  but  just  sane  and 
wholesome  pagans  with  clear  heads  and  true  tastes — they  would, 
as  a  public  of  patrons  and  spectators,  have  nothing  to  say  to 
these  exhibitions  of  skill  in  mistaken  directions.  Throughout 
all  the  truly  classical  period  you  will  find  nothing  embodied  by 
Athenian  artists  in  stone  or  in  metal  which  does  not  either 
carry  with  it  some  feeling  of  majesty  and  dignity,  heroism  or 
other  loftiness,  or  else  stir  the  mind  to  keen  pleasure  in  the 
contemplation  of  physical  and  mental  perfection — the  perfec- 
tion of  strength,  grace,  or  beauty.  Not  that  the  Athenians 
deliberately  meant  their  art  to  preach  to  men.  Their  choice 
of  these  higher  and  healthier  themes  was  intuitive  or  inbred, 
the  spontaneous  outcome  of  a  judgment  sane  and  true. 

We  do  not,  of  course,  worship  the  Athenian  gods,  nor  do 
we  worship  the  human  body  as  did  the  Athenians :  our 
sympathies  are  as  limited  on  the  one  side  as  the  Athenian 
sympathies  were  on  another.  To  us,  therefore,  an  Athenian 
sculpture,  even  of  the  best  period,  may  sometimes  seem  to  lack 
motive.  But  that  is  our  misapprehension,  and,  even  while  we 
are  making  it,  we  can  scarcely  fail  to  see  that  the  form  is 
perfect  and  the  execution  absolutely  true. 

That  is  the  next  point — the  Athenian  resolve  to  be  true  in 
execution,  true  with  a  fine  and  noble  simplicity  ;  to  be  true  to 
the  exact  degree  to  which  truth  is  desirable,  and  to  stop  there  ; 
not  to  stop  earlier,  nor  yet  to  pass  beyond  into  such  a  finical 


186 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  XVI 


and  distracting  elaboration  of  detail  as  to  take  from  the 
intended  effect  of  the  whole.  Many  people  imagine  that  Greek 
sculpture — to  take  that  salient  province  again — deliberately 
avoided  truth  to  nature,  and  aimed  at  some  utterly  conventional 
thing  called  "  the  ideal."  Nothing  could  be  more  mistaken. 
The  whole  aim  of  Greek  sculpture  was  to  reproduce  the  living 
man  or  woman,  and  the  sublime  of  its  execution  was  attained 
only  when  the  carving  seemed  to  be  instinct  with  life — a  life 
not  merely  of  the  limbs,  but  a  life  of  the  soul,  which  informed 
the  countenance  and  was  felt  to  be  controlling  every  limb.  A 
Greek  sculptor  like  Praxiteles  studies  long  and  lovingly  every 
action  of  the  human  muscles  and  every  proportion  of  the  best- 
built  bodies  in  every  worthy  pose  or  exercise,  as  they  showed 
themselves  in  the  wrestling-grounds  or  in  his  workshop.  He 
studies  the  human  countenance  in  all  worthy  moods.  To 
anatomy  he  is  as  true  as  artist  need  wish  to  be.  But  are  not 
his  figures  " ideal"?  Doubtless,  but  what  does  " ideal"  mean? 
That  they  are  abstract,  conventional,  or  frankly  superhuman  ! 
Anything  but  that.  It  means  simply  that  he  carves  figures 
which,  while  entirely  true  to  strict  anatomy,  entirely  lifelike  in 
all  their  delicate  modelling  and  in  their  strong  yet  graceful 
suppleness,  are  examples  of  nature  in  happiest  circumstance, 
of  that  which  nature  evidently  means  perfect  man  to  be,  of 
that  which  is  quite  conceivably  attainable  by  man,  and  is  now 
and  then  actually  attained  by  him — rather  this,  than  mere 
vigorous  or  skilful  copies  of  surrounding  men  and  women,  with 
various  physical  shortcomings  upon  them. 

That  is  the  sort  of  "  truth  to  nature "  which  the  Greeks 
thought  fit  to  set  up  for  delight  and  admiration  in  their  temples 
and  colonnades. 

There  is  finally  the  element  of  a  fine  and  noble  simplicity. 
In  all  the  best  of  Athenian  art  the  effects  are  utterly  truthful 
and  satisfying.  But  how  is  this  truth  obtained  ?  Perhaps 
scarcely  otherwise  than  by  sheer  genius,  combining  the  most 
luminous  observation  with  a  perfect  technical  mastery  over  the 
material.  Return  to  sculpture  once  again.  How  are  we  to 
embody  a  deity,  in  form  the  ideal  man  or  woman,  ideal  in 
strength  and  grace  and  that  perfection  of  spirited  character 
which  the  Athenians  call  dperrj,  revealing  in  the  countenance  a 
certain  "  divine  energy  of  contemplation  "  ?  By  what  means,  in 
representing  such  a  divinity,  shall  the  sculptor  impart  to  the 


Fig.  78.— Hermes  of  Praxiteles. 


187 


188 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


GHAP. 


stone  or  the  bronze  these  physical  and  spiritual  perfections  ? 
How  shall  he  realise  the  light  grace  of  movement  in  an  Aphrodite, 
or  her  look  of  melting  but  divine  charm  ?  How  the  quiet 
benignity  of  a  Hermes  holding  the  infant  Bacchus  ?    There  is 


Fig.  79. — Laocoon. 


no  scope  here  for  all  the  pronounced,  and  in  a  sense  loud, 
anatomical  chisel-play  of  him  who  sculptures  the  writhing 
group  of  the  Laocoon  or  the  gigantic  muscles  of  the  Farnese 
Hercules.  The  artist  must  rely  simply  on  a  perfect  modelling, 
into  which  can  come  no  tricks  and  tours  de  force.    For  just  the 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


189 


perfect  smile,  the  eyelid  and  the  lips  and  the  moulding  of  the 
cheek  must  receive  treatment  so  infinitely  delicate  that  none 
can  say  exactly  how  it  is  accomplished.  The  chisel  of 
Praxiteles  seems  to  have  been  inspired  by  Nature  personified. 

Such  is  the  fine  and  noble  simplicity  which  the  perfect  age 
of  Greek  art  preferred  to  all  the  cleverest  anatomical  studies 
in  contorted  limbs  and  starting  veins  and  faces  drawn  with 
agony  or  puckered  with  glee.  There  is  nothing  conventional 
here,  nothing  easy  and  imitable,  rather  the  consummately 
difficult  and  the  inimitable,  because  so  utterly  final  in  its 
veracity.  The  Athenian  public,  keenly  observant  of  the 
human  body  and  countenance,  were  merciless  judges  of  the 
veracious  and  the  lifelike  in  matters  so  hard  to  seize.  The 
artist  was  therefore  practically  driven  to  perfection. 

Though,  then,  the  Athenians  did  not  ask  art  to  preach,  and 
probably  never  thought  out  just  what  they  did  ask  of  it,  they 
required  that  it  should  deal  with  things  not  mean  nor  trivial 
nor  ugly  ;  that  it  should  not  slavishly  copy  accidental  and 
peculiar  facts  of  individual  occurrences,  but  should  seek  that 
type  which  is  the  aim  of  nature's  effort,  the  ideal.  Though  they 
demanded  of  it  simplicity,  simplicity  meant  anything  rather 
than  want  of  skill  and  finish ;  it  meant  that  very  perfection 
of  performance  which  renounces  every  trick,  and  rests  for  its 
effects  solely  upon  absolute  truth. 

The  same  fine  simplicity  appears  in  Greek  architecture  and 
in  Greek  literature.  Aristotle  says  of  the  best  literary  style 
that  it  should  be  "  clear  but  not  undistinguished."  So  Greek 
architecture  is  building,  "but  not  undistinguished."  It  is 
when  we  begin  to  add  the  distinction  that  we  run  the  risk  of 
errors  in  taste.  It  is  a  prime  excellence  of  Greek  art  that  its 
taste  was  right  in  the  matter  of  "distinguishing"  its  writing 
or  its  building.  Imagine  a  row  of  stately  columns  before  some 
noble  structure ;  let  those  columns  be  Doric,  Ionic,  Corinthian, 
as  you  will.  It  will  be  noticed  that  their  shafts  are  all  simple, 
and  that  such  ornament  as  they  possess  is  at  the  capital,  where 
the  horizontal  and  vertical  lines  are  to  meet.  The  ornament  is 
there  for  a  purpose,  to  spare  the  abruptness  of  transition  from 
the  one  line  to  the  other.  The  expansion  in  the  capital  of  an 
Ionic  or  Corinthian  column  seems  to  gather  up  the  weight  of 
the  superincumbent  mass,  and  which  shape  the  ornament  shall 
take  is  fairly  a  "  matter  of  taste,"  though  it  may  be  remarked 


190 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


that  the  more  florid  Corinthian  is  rather  affected  in  Graeco- 
Roman  than  in  classical  Athenian  times.  Now,  again,  suppose 
we  begin  to  modify  those  shafts  by  means  of  grooves  or  flutings 
running  vertically.  Here  the  eye  is  not  displeased.  There  is 
not  merely  a  relieving  of  the  monotony,  but  there  is  significance 


U   U  U   U  U  LI- 


LI  IS  "J  U 


Fig.  80.— Doric  style. 


in  the  fact  that  those  lines  or  grooves  running  up  the  column 
seem  by  an  illusion  to  help  in  the  supporting  strength  and 
natural  upward  striving  of  the  pillars.  So  far  goes  the  Greek. 
But  go  farther  than  that,  and  begin  to  bedeck  the  same  shafts 
at  intervals  with  festoonings  and  reliefs  and  fantastic  figurings 
of  fruits  and  flowers  and  heads  of  cherubs  and  animals  and  so 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


191 


forth,  and  good  taste  at  once  revolts.  The  ornamentation  is 
meaningless,  it  helps  nothing,  it  is  obtrusive ;  it  cries  out,  "  I 
am  merely  intended  for  a  prettiness,"  and  it  offends.    It  is 


juuuuuuuuun 


Fig.  81,— Ionic  style. 


much  the  same  with  literature,  and  in  writing,  as  in  archi- 
tecture, modern  taste  is  less  true  than  the  Greek.  Very  many, 
perhaps  the  greater  number,  feel  no  offence  at  the  filigree- 
work  on  the  columns.    Indeed,  it  by  no  means  rarely  happens 


192 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  XVI 


that  it  is  precisely  these  ornaments  of  which  many  are  most 
enamoured. 


V 

\  

^  

1               ■-'OTV,                     I  J 

When  it  is  asked  why  the  Greeks,  and  particularly  the 
Athenians,  were  so  pre-eminently  artistic  a  people,  why  their 
fine  art  was  so  plenteous  and  so  admirable,  the  usual  answer  is 

insufficient.  To  say  that  their 
peculiar  love  of  art  and  their 
peculiar  mastery  of  its  principles 
came  of  a  special  "  genius "  in 
the  race,  is  only  partially  true. 
No  doubt,  as  a  people,  the 
Greeks  actually  were  dis- 
tinguished by  a  superlative 
dexterity  of  hand  and  a  rare 
truth  of  taste.  From  their 
happy  racial  blending  it  seems 
to  have  resulted  that  the 
Hellenes  in  the  main  stood  to 
most  other  peoples  somewhat 
as  the  individual  of  higher 
tastes  and  perception  among 
ourselves  may  stand  to  the 
individual  of  lower  taste  and 
insight.  That  they  loved  and 
honoured  art  is  clear  from  Fig. 
83,  in  which  is  depicted  the  in- 
terior of  a  pottery  with  Athena 
and  two  Victories  present  to 
reward  the  workers,  one  of 
whom  is  a  woman.  But  we 
must  not  make  too  much  of 
national  genius,  a  thing  which 
in  some  cases  is  almost  as  much  an  effect  as  a  cause.  No  doubt 
the  Greek  is  always  so  far  superior  to  the  Eoman  or  the 
Oriental  in  the  principles  and  practices  of  his  literature,  his 
sculpture,  and  his  architecture  alike  that  we  must  assuredly 
give  him  credit  for  a  type  of  mind  congenitally  higher  than 
theirs  in  these  aesthetic  domains.  And  yet  this  type  of  mind 
was  itself  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  developed  or  encouraged 
by  special  circumstances,  and  we  can  hardly  tell  how  far  the 


Fig.  82.— Corinthian  style. 


193 


0 


194 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


same  circumstances,  had  they  existed,  might  have  produced  a 
nobler  and  purer  type  of  artistic  creation  in  Egypt  or  in  Eome. 
To  take  an  example.  It  was  the  new  circumstances  of  the 
later  Italian  cities  which  called  forth  the  wealth  of  painting, 
sculpture,  architecture,  and  literature  which  belongs  to  Renais- 
sance times.  The  people  themselves  were  the  same.  Similarly, 
it  was  what  we  may  call  a  long -sustained  local  rivalry  of 
devotion  that  called  forth  the  Gothic  cathedrals  which  cover 
North- Western  Europe. 

And  what  was  the  case  with  Greece  1  Greece  in  all 
probability  borrowed  its  first  principles  of  architecture  or 
sculpture  from  the  Egyptians  and  the  Asiatics.  Its  literature 
it  devised  for  itself,  and  therefore  its  literature,  unlike  its  early 
sculpture,  was  in  the  Greek  style  from  the  first.  But  the 
rudimentary  efforts  of  Greek  architectural  and  plastic  art  are 
evidently  imitative.  Their  Egyptian  or  Oriental  character  can 
escape  no  observer,  even  if  he  be  but  moderately  informed.  It 
is  often  difficult  at  the  first  glance  to  distinguish  the  early 
Greek  work  from  that  of  Egypt.  Now  the  Egyptian  artists  in 
stone  or  wood  were  craftsmen  of  marvellous  dexterity.  They 
seem  to  have  done  what  they  liked  with  the  material.  When 
the  fully  formed  and  settled  Greeks  first  came  into  intercourse 
with  Egypt,  they  knew  nothing  of  the  sculptor's,  and  very 
little  of  the  builder's  art,  whatever  may  have  been  the  artistic 
potentialities  with  which  nature  had  endowed  them  as  a  race. 
They  found  themselves  face  to  face  with  people  who  could  take 
stone  and  shape  it  deftly  into  separate  figures  of  gods  and  men, 
or  into  pillars  with  ornate  capitals,  or  carve  it  into  whole  scenes 
in  relief  along  a  temple  or  palace  front.  What  more  natural 
than  that  they,  the  Greeks,  should  set  themselves  to  do  the 
same  ?  Would  it  have  been  surprising  if  their  art  had 
continued  to  cultivate  just  the  forms  and  follow  just  the 
conventions  of  those  who  first  taught  them  how  to  create  a 
shape  and  handle  a  chisel  ?  The  Egyptian  hand  was  as  sure  as 
the  Greek.  In  the  Egyptian  Museum  of  Boulac  there  are 
specimens  of  perfectly  realistic  portraiture  in  wood  or  stone, 
which  could  hardly  be  surpassed  for  mere  technical  skill.  This 
being  so,  since  Greek  art  began  by  copying  the  Egyptian,  and 
since  the  best  Egyptian  workman  was  as  dexterous  as  the 
Greek,  how  comes  it  that  the  art  of  Greece  took  so  different 
a  course,  produced   work  so    characteristically  its  own,  so 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


195 


immeasurably  higher  in  all  the  effects  of  beauty  and  noble 
interest ' 

Because,  it  is  said,  of  the  superiority  of  Greek  genius  in  the 
region  of  taste.  That  natural  superiority  cannot  be  denied  ; 
but  we  are  bound  to  point  out  that  there  were  other  reasons. 
Three  are  patent.  Greek  social  organisation,  Greek  religious 
ideas,  and  Greek  physical  training  had  quite  as  much  to  do 
with  the  matter.  We  may,  if  we  choose,  call  these  also  part  of 
the  peculiar  Greek  genius,  and  so  we  come  back  to  the  Greek 
genius  after  all.  But  then  it  is  not  solely  the  spontaneous 
aesthetic  genius  of  the  Greeks  which  decides  the  question  of 
Greek  art.  It  is  that  congenital  aesthetic  genius  finding  free 
play  in  a  peculiar  social  organisation  and  a  peculiar  range  of 
religious  and  social  ideas,  although  these  are  themselves  but 
another  outcome  of  the  Greek  genius  in  the  intellectual  and 
social  domains. 

Let  us  endeavour  to  make  this  clear.  In  Egypt  we  find  an 
absolute  monarchy  tempered  by  priestly  power,  a  caste-system, 
a  worship  of  mysterious  and  monstrous  deities,  and  a  remarkable 
belief  in  the  possibility  of  prolonging  a  desirable  existence  for 
the  dead,  either  by  mummifying  the  corpse,  or  by  providing  it 
with  a  "  double  "  in  the  shape  of  an  image.  At  what  then  will 
Egyptian  art  be  aiming  ?  Necessarily  it  will  build  dark  and 
mysterious  shrines  ;  it  will  carve  monsters  to  represent  its  gods, 
monsters  which  are  neither  ideal  jior  real ;  it  will  build  kings' 
palaces,  and  carve  and  paint  scenes  full  of  their  victories,  scenes 
in  which  the  king  is  everything,  while  the  individual  who  does 
the  fighting  counts  for  nothing  and  need  only  be  conventionally 
depicted.  In  Egypt,  therefore,  we  shall  find  no  ideal  types  of 
sculpture,  no  aiming  at  the  representation  of  perfect  strength 
and  beauty. 

But  how  is  it  with  Greece  ?  In  the  first  place,  the  Greek 
gods  are  simply  glorified  humanity  possessed  of  more  perfect 
powers  of  mind  and  shapes  of  body.  There  is  no  symbolism 
about  them.  And  Greek  art  began  with  Greek  religion.  The 
first  objects  to  be  carved  were  therefore  gods  ;  and  here  at  once 
Greek  sculpture  must  break  away  from  the  Egyptian,  with  its 
dog-headed  and  cow-headed  monstrosities,  or  from  the  Assyrian, 
with  its  winged  bulls  and  griffin-beaked  demons.  It  must  seek 
to  represent  real  and  true  forms,  though  more  perfect  than  the 
common  reality. 


196 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


Remember  that  Greece  consisted  of  a  multitude  of  little 
states  and  cities,  each  with  local  tutelary  deities  of  its  own,  and 
with  a  local  pride  and  ambition  of  its  own.  The  consequence 
was  that  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  temples  of  special  divinities, 
adorned  with  their  statues  within  and  without,  rose  all  over 
Greece.  Hence  an  increasing  competition  in  the  production  of 
these  human  but  ideal  forms,  and  therefore  a  continual  improve- 
ment in  technical  methods,  a  continual  approach  towards  the 
desired  perfection.  In  Egypt  there  were  a  few  national  gods, 
and  these  were  carved  practically  alike  all  over  the  kingdom. 
In  Greece  each  little  state  demanded  a  realisation  of  its  own 
conception  of  its  special  deity  or  set  of  deities,  and  was  eager 
to  surpass  its  neighbours  in  the  excellence  of  the  result.  It 
was  not  simply  taste  for  true  art,  though  that  counted  for  much. 
It  was  partly  also  real  devotion  to  the  deity,  partly  the  same 
rivalry  which  at  a  later  time  in  Italy  induced  Venice,  Florence, 
or  Genoa  to  beautify  themselves  one  against  the  other.  Nothing 
could  foster  great  sculpture  better  than  this — first,  a  deliberate 
aim  at  the  representation  of  ideal  humanity,  second,  a  constant 
stimulus  of  rivalry  on  all  sides  towards  its  perfect  attainment. 

In  the  third  place,  the  Greek  states  in  which  art  most 
flourished  were  democracies.  There  was  abundance  of  popular 
criticism  proceeding  from  an  intelligent  people,  who,  after  all, 
recognise  truth  to  the  human  form  when  they  see  it.  The 
appeal  was  not  to  academies  or  cliques,  to  a  patron  or  to  a 
priesthood.  It  was  to  the  truth  of  nature.  And  this  fact,  so 
long  as  Greek  states  were  democratic,  kept  art  fresh  and  whole- 
some and  natural.  The  fantastic,  the  exaggerated,  the  finical, 
the  untrue,  belong,  and  always  have  belonged,  to  passing 
schools  and  coteries,  or  to  hidebound  sects.  In  all  the  best  periods 
ot  art  it  has  been  the  artist  who  executes  and  the  aggregate  of 
laymen  who  judge.  It  is  only  in  decadent  periods  that  the 
artist  judges  himself  or  is  judged  by  his  own  particular  school. 
Pheidias  built  and  carved,  Praxiteles  sculptured,  in  order  to 
perform  to  his  best  ability  what  the  community  sought  from 
him. 

And  in  the  last  place,  besides  the  rivalry,  the  aim  at  the 
ideal  of  true  humanity,  and  the  lively,  intelligent  popular 
appreciation,  there  existed,  for  sculpture,  the  all-important  fact 
that  the  Greeks  knew,  as  no  other  civilised  nation  has  ever 
known,  what  the  human  body  is  like.    For  hundreds  of  years 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


197 


the  Greeks  wrestled  and  leapt  and  ran  and  threw  the  quoit  and 
the  javelin  in  their  training-schools  and  public  games  in  a 
state  of  nudity.  We  in  modern  times  may  be  students  of 
anatomy  and  know  the  body  theoretically.  The  sculptor  or 
painter  may  share  in  that  study,  so  far  as  often  to  carve  and  paint 
rather  anatomy  than  life.  The  Greek  artists  and  the  Greek 
critics  of  artists  knew  the  body  simply  as  it  was  ;  they  could 
study  it  every  day  in  every  pose  and  every  outline.  And, 
since  the  purpose  of  art  is  to  express  to  the  life  what  you  see, 
because  you  see  it,  and  not  to  express  some  underlying  fact 
which  you  may  have  been  taught  by  science,  the  Greeks  carved 
their  statues  true  to  ideal  life,  representing  in  absolute  perfection 
that  which  was  lifelike  from  a  spectator's  point  of  view.  What 
more  can  possibly  be  desired  ?  The  Greek  artist  did  not  say, 
"  I  shall  shape  this  thus  and  thus  because  science  tells  me  that 
it  ought  to  be  so."  He  simply  said,  "  This  is  the  shape  we  look 
for  in  the  finest  types  in  the  gymnasia." 

Such  are  the  religious  and  social  conditions  which*  helped 
to  make  Greek  art  follow  a  line  so  different  from  the  Oriental. 
They  apply  to  buildings  and  to  paintings  as  much  as  they  do 
to  statuary.  Nevertheless,  do  not  let  us  be  understood  to 
deny  that,  naturally  and  congenitally,  the  Greek  taste  and 
spirit  sought  the  true  expression,  with  a  fine  and  noble 
simplicity,  of  something  worthy  to  be  expressed.  For  it  is  so 
in  Greek  literature  also,  as  far  back  as  we  can  go,  as  far  back 
as  our  Homer,  and,  we  may  be  wholly  certain,  beyond  our 
Homer. 

These  then  are  the  reasons — true  aims  and  true  criticism — 
why  Greek  art  reached  so  high  a  standard.  And  why  was  it 
so  plenteous  ?  We  at  this  day  can  hardly  realise  how  full 
Greece  must  have  been  of  noble  building  and  noble  sculpture. 
Ancient  writers,  like  Pausanias,  describe  to  us  immense  numbers 
of  statues.  For  centuries  these  people  were  building  their 
temples  and  public  edifices,  and  erecting  masterpieces  of  sculp- 
ture in  them.  Many  a  town  or  its  acropolis  must  have  been 
a  perfect  museum  of  art  works.  Statues  on  the  level  ground, 
statues  on  high  pedestals,  statues  seated  in  the  shrines,  statues 
placed  in  the  pediments,  sculptures  in  relief  along  the  frieze, 
on  altars,  and  on  tombs — temples  lifting  their  bright  columns 
and  coloured  gables  on  countless  hills  and  promontories  against 


198 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


the  background  of  the  blue  sky  or  the  mountains — paintings 
in  the  colonnades  and  lounging-places — how  little  of  all  this 
is  left  ! 

The  Romans  ransacked  Greece  and  carried  off  innumerable 
masterpieces  to  Italy,  where,  after  the  barbarian  invasions, 
the  marble  figures  were  mostly  burnt  for  lime  and  the  bronze 
figures  melted  down  for  the  metal,  while  only  a  few,  and  those 
not  of  quite  the  best  period,  have  managed  to  escape.  The 
emperors  of  Constantinople  carried  off  large  numbers  of  the 
remainder,  only  to  let  them  fall  later  into  the  iconoclastic 
hands  of  the  Turks.  The  Slav  and  Frank  and  Venetian  and 
Turk  have  played  their  parts  in  the  havoc.  Time  and  neglect 
have  done  the  rest.  And  so  it  comes  about  that,  whereas  we 
possess  such  treasures  as  the  Elgin  Marbles  from  the  Parthenon 
and  the  "  Aeginetan  Marbles "  from  Aegina,  the  Hermes  of 
Praxiteles  unearthed  in  1877  at  Olympia,  reliefs  from  the  altars 
of  Pergamus  and  from  the  Mausoleum,  and  rather  late  works 
like  the  Laocoon  and  the  Aphrodite  of  Melos,  for  the  most 
part  we  possess  no  original  work  direct  from  the  hand  of  a 
great  master.  Beautiful,  and  in  some  cases  fully  authenticated, 
copies  of  the  great  masterpieces,  dating  from  the  later  Greek 
or  Graeco-Roman  times,  are  to  be  found  in  museums  like  the 
Vatican  or  that  of  Naples.  Enough  material  has  been  found 
to  overthrow  almost  entirely  the  doctrines  of  Greek  art 
formulated  on  such  slight  material  by  critics  of  the  last 
century.  But,  after  all,  it  is  but  a  poor  fraction  of  all  this 
Greek  work  that  we  either  now  possess  or  can  ever  hope  to 
possess  when  the  last  excavator  has  dug  his  last  shovelful. 

The  plenteousness  of  excellent  work  at  Athens  came  partly 
from  the  inbred  popular  love  of  art,  which  constantly  demanded 
such  creations ;  partly  from  the  fact  that  the  typical  Athenian 
was  mainly  a  man  of  leisure  and  yet  of  energy,  whose  activities 
must  find  effusion  in  some  direction,  and  therefore  found  it 
largely-  in  art ;  and  partly  from  the  fact  that  the  Athenians 
were  a  people  of  simple  lives,  of  no  domestic  extravagance, 
caring  rather  more  for  the  things  of  the  mind  than  those 
of  the  body,  and  therefore  prepared  to  devote  their  funds 
liberally  to  the  beautifying  of  their  city  and  the  gladdening 
of  their  own  eyes.  Art,  in  fact,  was  a  fashion  as  well  as  a 
passion.  It  was  a  part  of  their  life,  not  an  element  of  esoteric 
cultivation. 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


199 


The  effect  of  Athenian  life  on  Athenian  art  is,  then, 
sufficiently  clear.  It  is  less  easy  to  demonstrate  the  influence 
of  Athenian  art  on  Athenian  life.  Yet  such  an  influence  was 
undoubtedly  exerted.  For  instance,  take  religion.  The  Greek 
gods  were  from  the  first  held  to  be  like  unto  men,  though  in 
the  better  minds  they  were  superior  to  men,  possessing  all  the 
highest  of  human  attributes.  Yet  if  the  ordinary  Greek  had 
been  left  to  the  tales  of  the  current  mythology  for  his  con- 
ception of  divinity,  his  deities  would  have  been  but  gross, 
and  rather  to  be  feared  than  held  in  willing  reverence.  Art 
played  an  altogether  unique  part  in  raising  the  standard  of 
deity,  that  is  to  say,  in  refining  and  ennobling  the  conception 
of  it.  Artist  vying  with  artist  to  represent  ideally  in  visible 
form  the  omnipotent  majesty  of  Zeus,  or  the  calm,  benignant 
wisdom  of  Athena,  or  the  chaste  maidenhood  of  Artemis ; 
artist  vying  with  artist  to  set  these  and  other  gods  in  temples 
more  and  more  worthy  to  be  the  abodes  of  awe  and  majesty  : 
these,  working  through  the  eyes  and  upon  the  sentiments  of 
men,  undoubtedly  raised  up  better  notions  of  the  godhead, 
and  to  an  appreciable  extent  modified  Athenian  religion,  at 
least  on  its  theoretical  side.  Athena  as  conceived  by  the 
Athenians  was  the  Athena  as  carved  by  Pheidias,  and,  however 
imaginary  a  being  Athena  may  have  been,  it  was  manifestly 
better  that  the  patron  goddess  should  be  imagined  in  such 
perfection  than  according  to  an  individual  fancy,  which  might 
be,  and  in  many  cases  was  sure  to  be,  vulgar  and  uninspiring. 

It  is  to  the  sculptor's  and  painter's  art  that  is  due  the 
characteristic  quality  of  Greek  deities,  as  conceived  from  the 
great  age  of  Greek  life  onward — the  quality  which  the  Greeks 
themselves  called  o-e/xvor^s,  a  difficult  word  to  translate,  but  im- 
plying a  character  which  must  impress  and  chasten  with  its 
superior  excellence  and  dignity.  Doubtless  the  sculptor  and  the 
painter  had  first  to  entertain  the  general  Greek  notion  that  gods 
are  glorified  men  and  women  ;  but  it  was  they  who  determined, 
or  by  rivalry  developed,  the  ideal  of  that  glorifying  or  o-e/xvoT^s. 

To  raise  the  standard  of  your  gods  is  to  raise  the  standard 
of  your  conception  of  your  relation  to  those  gods,  and  thus  art 
produced  some  practical  effect  upon  the  spiritual  life  of  Athens, 
in  so  far — and  it  was  not  very  far — as  the  spiritual  life  was 
determined  by  religion. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  social  side,  the  effect  of  such  a  wealth  of 


200 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


fine  conceptions,  forms  of  health  and  grace  and  beauty  and 
dignity,  seen  every  day,  set  a  perpetual  standard  for  physical 
development,  for  personal  bearing  and  demeanour,  which  had 


Fig.  84.— Bust  of  Pericles. 


its  influence  upon  the  individual.  "  Beautiful  as  a  statue " 
was  a  current  phrase,  and  perhaps  it  was  a  more  wholesome 
thing  for  a  Greek  to  form  himself  generation  after  generation 
upon  the  ideals  of  artists,  than  to  vary,  as  we  do,  according 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


201 


to  thai  highly  capricious  and  often  stultifying  thing  called 
"  fashion."  Greek  art  was  very  clear  in  its  principles  and 
very  consistent  in  its  practice,  and  though  it  might  be  difficult, 


Fig.  85.— Bust  of  Plato. 

amid  the  modern  turbid  or  anarchic  conditions  of  art  and  the 
slight  popular  regard  for  it,  to  imagine  art  operating  practically 
upon  our  behaviour,  the  case  with  Greek  art  and  its  art-loving 
people  must  be  judged  from  quite  another  standpoint. 


202 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


There  is  still  to  be  mentioned  one  fact  which  is  apt  to  give 
a  shock  to  the  modern  student  of  aesthetics.  This  was  the 
painting  or  tinting  of  statuary.  As  we  look  at  the  Elgin 
Marbles  or  the  Hermes  of  Praxiteles,  figures  so  perfect  in 
modelling  and  of  such  fine  texture  of  the  marble,  we  find  it 
difficult  to  believe  that  the  artist  deliberately  coloured  the  hair 
or  eyes  or  painted  portions  of  the  drapery.  Yet  such  is  the 
truth.  The  marks  of  the  paint  and  even  portions  of  it  are  still 
discernible.  But  it  would  leave  an  altogether  false  impression 
upon  our  minds  if  we  left  the  statement  in  that  bald  shape. 

The  modern  is  puzzled  and  vexed,  and  perhaps  not  un- 
naturally. Egyptian  and  Assyrian  sculpture  and  building  were 
invariably  coloured.  The  object  originally  was  to  render  the 
thing  represented  more  lifelike,  as  well  as  to  bring  out  the 
figures  and  shapes  with  more  distinctness.  The  outlines  stood 
out  better  against  the  sky  or  other  background ;  but  mainly 
the  purpose  was  to  recall  the  actual  thing,  to  be  realistic  in 
colour  as  in  shape.  When  the  Greeks,  in  their  artistic  infancy, 
learned  their  lessons  from  the  Egyptians  and  others,  they 
learned  also  to  colour  the  first  rough  images  of  gods  which 
they  made.  The  poor  things  needed  it ;  they  were  such  un- 
lifelike  creations.  They  were  mostly  of  wood,  with  legs  and 
arms  not  separated,  made  like  dolls,  with  eyes  of  glass  or  more 
precious  material  let  in,  and  with  real  hair,  inserted  into  the 
scalp.  And  therewith  they  were  coloured  from  head  to  foot, 
with  such  skill  as  the  artificer  could  command.  Then,  in  their 
rapid  progress — for  it  was  marvellously  rapid — the  shapes 
improved,  the  limbs  separated,  the  hair  was  carved  instead  of 
inserted,  and  the  colour  began  to  be  more  sparingly  and 
artistically  employed.  Yet  it  was  found  that,  when  contem- 
plated from  a  distance,  as  these  crudely  fashioned  deities  mostly 
were,  the  colour  gave  distinctness  to  what  might  have  been 
otherwise  hardly  discernible.  Moreover,  as  no  one  had  yet 
seen  sculpture  without  colour,  so  no  one  yet  thought  of  sculpture 
without  colour.  The  artist  and  his  employers,  the  public,  both 
stood  in  need  of  experience. 

But  one  thing  the  artist  began  instinctively  to  do.  He 
began  to  conventionalise  his  colours.  When  the  pediment  or 
gable  of  a  temple  was  to  be  filled  with  sculpture,  it  might  be, 
to  the  observer  on  the  ground  and  at  a  distance,  no  disadvantage 
to  have  the  background  of  the  walls  painted  in  dark  red  or 


XVI 


ATHENIAN  ART 


203 


some  other  colour,  which  would  throw  up  the  statues  into 
proper  relief,  in  much  the  same  way  as  well-regulated  and 
well-provided  galleries  will  put  curtains  of  chocolate-coloured 
or  other  velvet  behind  a  marble  sculpture  which  pretends  to 
exquisiteness  of  outline.  We  should  perhaps  admit  so  much, 
if  we  lived  in  the  atmosphere  of  ancient  Greece  and  looked 
at  the  Parthenon  marbles  up  above  us,  and  not,  as  we  are 
accustomed  to  do,  down  upon  our  own  level  in  a  museum.  In 
statuary  of  excellence  the  distinctness  of  outline  is  everything. 
A  shape  of  dazzling  marble  against  a  white  wall  or  in  the 
middle  of  a  room  surrounded  by  white  walls,  can  never  be 
followed  by  the  eye.  The  outline  is  simply  confounded  and 
the  finest  portion  of  the  art  wasted. 

So  much  for  the  painting  of  the  pedimental  wall.  But  for 
the  figures'?  It  might  seem  that  we  could  have  spared  the 
paint  upon  them.  The  older  Greek  artists,  even  Pheidias  and 
his  school,  did  not  seem  to  think  so.  They  no  longer  intended 
by  their  colours  to  make  the  figures  realistic.  That  fact  is 
obvious  inasmuch  as  their  colours  became  purely  conventional. 
Hair  was  coloured  dark  red,  sometimes  even  dark  blue ;  and 
that  is  not  the  colour  of  hair.  A  shield  might  be  coloured  in 
dark  blue ;  and  that  was  not  the  colour  of  a  shield.  But  it  is 
clear  that  the  artists,  not  venturing  yet  to  renounce  colour, 
and  finding  that,  viewed  from  a  given  distance,  the  colouring 
managed  to  bring  out  certain  lines  and  details  otherwise  lost, 
employed  colour  simply  for  that  purpose,  and  as  sparingly  as 
they  dared. 

When  wood  was  abandoned  for  marble  the  first  blow  was 
dealt  to  colouring.  When  the  colours  became  sparing  and 
conventional,  merely  affecting  the  hair  or  the  borders  of  a 
garment,  the  second  blow  was  delivered.  And  when,  instead 
of  robed  gods  seated  aloof  in  shrines,  or  of  scenes  of  battle 
depicted  aloft  on  pediments,  human  beings  without  drapery 
were  carved  for  erection  close  to  the  eye  in  wrestling-grounds 
or  other  public  places,  then  colouring  naturally  drew  to  an  end. 

Art  is  evolved,  like  anything  else,  and  Greek  artists  learned 
by  experience. 

One  practice,  however,  the  Greek  artists  adhered  to.  The 
best  marble  is  very  dazzling.  Therefore  every  statue  in  that 
material  was  toned  down  by  an  application  of  white  wax  and 
oil  brushed  on,  and  then  made  to  sink  in  by  heat,  after  which 


204  LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS  chap,  xvi 

the  surface  was  rubbed  over  with  a  cloth.  This  does  not 
obscure  the  texture  of  the  marble,  while  it  does  prevent  the 
dazzling  and  distracting  of  the  eye.  In  a  matter  of  that 
kind  we  may  well  believe  that  the  Greek  sculptor  knew  his 
business. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


MODERNNESS  OF  THE  ATHENIAN 

It  should  by  this  time  have  been  brought  sufficiently  home 
that  the  Athenian  of  the  classical  time  was  peculiarly  "modern." 
There  are  certain  respects  in  which  he  is  far  nearer  to  us,  not 
only  than  the  Roman,  but  than  our  own  ancestors  of  a  few 
centuries  ago.  Despite  all  the  differences  of  detail  in  his  form 
of  government  and  administration,  his  political  situation  at 
this  period  bore  no  small  resemblance  to  that  to  which  we  are 
coming.  So  far  as  parties  existed,  they  correspond  very  much 
to  our  "  Labour  Party  "  and  its  opponents.  In  respect  of  law 
and  order  it  will  be  remembered  that  the  person  of  the  citizen 
was  most  stringently  protected.  No  citizen  thought  of  walking 
about  with  a  weapon  for  his  own  defence.  Socially  there  was 
an  absence  of  formality  and  ceremony,  which  also  increases  in 
the  present  day.  In  respect  of  wit  and  humour  Aristophanes 
and  his  fellow  comedians  would  be  almost  as  much  at  home  in 
the  twentieth  century  as  in  their  own.  There  are  scenes  and 
situations  which — except  that  they  are  in  Greek  and  deal  with 
things  Athenian — might  have  been  written  by  Mr.  Gilbert. 
The  irony  of  Plato  is  very  much  that  of  Matthew  Arnold,  and 
the  scientific  spirit  of  Aristotle  is  practically  that  of  Darwin  or 
of  Herbert  Spencer.  The  system  of  two  years'  training  for 
military  service  is  virtually  the  modern  Continental  system. 
The  athletic  training  and  enthusiasm  of  the  gymnasia  and  the 
public  games  is  being  nowadays  only  too  much  reproduced. 
The  very  appearance  of  the  men  was  modern. 

We  must  not  minimise  the  differences  which  have  been 
made  apparent.  But  we  may  regret  a  common  practice  of 
those  who  have  dealt  with  antiquity  in  translations  or  stories. 

205 


206 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP. 


The  practice  is  no  doubt  dying  out,  but  it  has  in  the  past  done 
much  damage  to  a  correct  understanding.  It  is  the  habit  of 
employing  ancient  instead  of  modern  terms,  quaint  old-fashioned 
expressions  instead  of  current  ones,  when  rendering  Greek 
writers  into  English,  or  when  speaking  of  Greek  life.  The 
result  has  been  to  cast  round  the  ancient  Athenian  an  entirely 
false  atmosphere,  to  distort  his  picture,  and  to  put  him  at  a 
social  and  intellectual  distance  which  is  untrue. 

During  these  chapters  we  have  avoided  all  the  Greek  terms 
and  all  archaic  phraseology,  translating,  as  far  as  possible,  by 
practical  modern  equivalents.  One  might  have  spoken  thus ; 
"  Pasicles  the  son  of  Xanthippus  carefully  cast  his  himation 
about  him  and  strode  through  the  pastas  and  auk  towards  the 
door,  followed  by  his  attendant  Sosias.  '  By  Poseidon,'  quoth 
Pasicles,  '  it  behoves  us  to  hasten ;  for  it  is  the  time  of  full 
market,  and  haply  Lysimachus  will  have  completed  his  business 
at  the  table  of  Pasias  before  we  can  arrive.  Hearken,  Sosias ; 
take  this  mina  of  silver,  run  with  all  speed,  and  deliver  it  to 
Lysimachus.' "  That  is  to  make  Pasicles  not  only  a  remote,  but 
rather  a  stilted  person,  by  a  mere  fallacy  of  language.  Suppose 
we  express  it  thus  :  "  Pasicles  carefully  adjusted  his  mantle, 
and  strode  through  the  alcove  and  the  courtyard  towards  the 
door.  Sosias  followed.  ' Dear  me,'  said  Pasicles,  '  we  must 
make  haste :  it  must  be  ten  o'clock,  and  I  am  afraid  Lysimachus 
will  have  done  with  his  business  at  Pasias'  bank  before  we  can 
get  there.  Here,  Sosias ;  take  four  pounds,  run  as  hard  as 
you  can,  and  give  it  to  Lysimachus.' " 

The  sense  is  exactly  the  same,  but  Pasicles  and  Sosias  are 
brought  infinitely  nearer  to  us  as  human  beings.  And  the 
important  fact  is  that  this  effect  is  true,  while  the  other  is  false. 

The  conspicuous  mental  virtues  of  the  Athenian  were  in- 
tellectual, artistic,  and  social:  a  clear  intellect,  a  just  perception 
in  art,  great  social  aptitude.  His  ideal  of  a  man  was  the  man 
well-educated  in  mind  and  body,  well-mannered,  sensible, 
tactful ;  quick  to  understand  a  thought  or  the  requirements  of 
a  situation ;  spirited,  but  temperate.  Morally,  the  cardinal 
virtues  were  justice,  temperance,  wisdom,  and  courage.  A  kalos 
kagathos  was  a  fine  fellow,  a  "  fine  type  of  man "  in  all  these 
ways  and  respects.    And  many  such  men  there  doubtless  were. 


XVII 


MODERNNESS  OF  THE  ATHENIAN 


207 


Just  and  honourable  gentlemen  were  not  rare  in  Athens. 
Nevertheless  one  cannot  but  recognise  certain  shortcomings. 
It  was  not  so  much  that  the  practice  fell  short  of  the  theory. 
That  occurs  everywhere,  and  is  as  common  under  Christianity 
as  under  paganism.  It  was  rather  that  the  moral  code  did  not 
go  far  enough.  It  was  the  law  and  good  form  that  controlled 
action,  not  some  deeper  and  worthier  sentiment  of  right  and 
wrong.  Conscience  was  not  highly  developed.  There  was 
nothing  altruistic  about  Athenian  morality,  no  doctrine  of 
loving  your  neighbour  as  yourself.  The  Athenian  had  no 
religion  of  charity.  For  example,  in  his  passionate  love  of 
beauty  and  charm  and  enjoyment  he  seems  rather  to  have 
detested  and  despised  disease  and  misery  than  to  have  pitied  it. 
Limbs  ought  to  be  sound  and  whole  and  straight ;  men  ought 
not  to  be  ill-fed  and  squalid  ;  and  the  average  Athenian  seems 
to  have  resented  the  obtrusion  upon  his  sight  of  any  violations 
of  these  rules.  A  fine,  upstanding,  well-bred  man  of  the  world, 
a  quick  thinker,  with  a  fair  mind,  a  dislike  of  excess,  and  an 
excellent  taste  in  art  and  literature — that  is  a  clubbable  person 
whom  we  are  always  glad  to  meet ;  but  there  is  still  something 
lacking.  For  thinking  and  doing  he  is  admirably  equipped, 
but  in  feeling  and  its  self-sacrifices  he  may  be  greatly  to  seek. 

In  the  intellectual  and  artistic  virtues  it  is  probable  that 
the  world  has  not  advanced  an  inch  since  Athenian  times. 
Perhaps  social  intercourse  is  but  little  more  reasonable  or  more 
pleasant.  But  in  the  moral  attitude  of  men  towards  their 
fellows  and  themselves  there  has  theoretically  been  a  con- 
spicuous advance.  We  may  believe,  too,  that  the  theory  may 
in  no  slight  measure  have  advanced  the  practice. 

The  Athenians  would  never  have  aroused  and  sustained  the 
interest  and  even  enthusiasm  with  which  students  regard  them, 
if  they  had  not  been  a  most  exceptional  people. 

They  have  been  compared  to  various  more  modern  peoples, 
but  only  with  partial  truth.  They  had,  it  is  true,  the  artistic 
creativeness  and  intellectual  enthusiasm  of  the  lively  Italian 
communities  of  Renaissance  times ;  on  the  other  hand,  they 
had  more  respect  for  law,  and  the  illegal  and  personal  violence 
of  poison  and  the  stiletto  was  comparatively  rare  among  them. 
They  had,  it  is  true,  the  humour  and  social  readiness,  the 
fluency  of  speech,  the  enthusiasm  for  fine  things,  which  belong 
to  the  Celtic  Irishman  ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  had  more  of 


208 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


CHAP.  XVII 


cool,  coherent,  and  profound  reasoning  and  sustained  creative- 
ness.  They  had,  it  is  true,  the  French  social  tact  and  love  of 
clear  outline  and  organisation  •  on  the  other  hand,  they  had 
none  of  the  deliberate  morbidness  in  morals  which  is  apt  to 
creep  into  Parisian  literature  and  life.  They  had,  it  is  true, 
the  English  fondness  for  athletics  and  bodily  training,  but  that 
is  the  only  respect  in  which  we  dare  compare  them  with  the 
English.  They  also  bore  a  very  remarkable  resemblance  in 
many  better  respects  to  the  Japanese.  What  do  we  get  1  A 
people  of  admirable  physique,  of  social  charm,  great  artists, 
clear  thinkers,  but  wanting  in  certain  elements  of  self-sacrifice, 
sympathy,  and  truthfulness — defects  which  were  partly  in  the 
blood,  and  partly  the  outcome  of  a  religion  which  was  a 
peculiar  blend  of  pagan  ceremony  and  a  rationalising  intellect, 
but  which  was  nothing  more. 


INDEX 


Academia,  5,  17,  85,  87 

Acropolis,  4,  5,  13-14,  18-26,  148  ; 
Erechtheum,  14,  23  ;  Parthenon,  5, 
14,  21-23,  181-182,  202  ;  Propylaea, 
5,  18-21,  148  ;  statue  of  Athena,  14, 
21  ;  temple  of  Victory,  14 

Aeginetan  marbles,  198 

Agatharchus,  63 

Agora,  14  ;  dealers'  booths,  79-81 
Alaric  the  Goth,  21 
Alcibiades,  63,  100 
Aliens  (see  Outlanders) 
Altars,  60,  141 

Ancestor  worship  (see  under  Burial) 
Animals,  pet,  60,  61,  108,  119 
Aphrodite,  188,  198 
Apollo,  statues,  58 
Arbitration,  169,  173 
Arcades  (see  Colonnades) 
Architecture,  181-182,  183,  189-192 
Areopagus,  14 
Aristophanes,  5,  205 
Aristotle,  5,  17,  87-88,  205 
Armour,  126-129 

Army,  127-130  ;  cavalry,  42,  129  ; 
equipment,  126-129;  militia,  garrison 
and  frontier,  39,  124-126  ;  military 
service,  liability  to,  127,  129  ;  out- 
landers in,  42,  129 

Art,  181-204  ;  causes  of  pre-eminence 
in,  192-197  ;  causes  of  plenteousness, 
197-198  ;  democratic  character,  184- 
185,  196,  198  ;  Egyptian  influence 
on,  194-196,  202;  influence  on 
religion,  136,  139,  199  ;  influence  on 
social  life,  199-201 ;  noble  simplicity, 
23, 182, 183-192  ;  principles,  183-194 

Artemis,  199 

Asclepius,  143 


Assembly,  165  -  168  ;  exclusion  of 
strangers  from,  40,  165  ;  meeting, 
35,  165  ;  members,  35,  39,  162, 
165  ;  speakers,  166-167 

Athena,  136,  138,  199  ;  festivals,  147- 
148  ;  statue,  14,  21 

Athens,  importance  in  Greek  world,  1, 
5-6  ;  meaning  of  term,  11-13 

Atmosphere,  clearness,  10-11,  23 

Attica,  1 

Bankers,  81-82 

Banquets,  90-100  ;  entertainments,  97- 
98  ;  invitations,  85,  89,  92  ;  room, 
61  ;  symposia,  95-98 

Barbers'  shops,  82-84 

Baths,  88-89 

Beard,  method  of  wearing,  78,  83-84 

Beds,  64-65 

Birds,  pet,  61 

Boeotians,  2 

Boots  (see  Shoes) 

Braziers,  63,  65 

Breakfast,  69 

Buildings,  public,  18,  28 

Burglars,  56 

Burial,  175-180  ;  modes,  177  ;  offerings 
to  dead,  104-105,  179-180  ;  tombs, 
177-180 

Cape  Sunium,  21 

Carpets,  66 

Cavalry,  42,  129,  148 

Cephisus,  11,  17 

Cerameicus,  16,  29,  147,  148 

Cerberus,  176 

Chairs,  64 

Character,  2,  206-208  ;  comparison  with 
modern  races,  207-208 

P 


210 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


Charon,  175-176 
Chests,  65 

Children — amusements,  102,  119-120  ; 

birth,     117-118  ;     education  (see 

Education)  ;     exposure,     117-118  ; 

names,  118-119  ;  nurses,  102,  119  ; 

relation  of  fathers,  117-118 
Chiton  (see  Tunics) 
Chlamys  (see  Cloaks) 
Cisterns,  63 

Citizens,  33,  34-40  ;  disfranchisement, 

39-40  ;  names,  40-41  ;  numbers,  37  ; 

political  equality,  35,  36-37  ;  162-164  ; 

qualifications  for  citizenship,  37-40  ; 

social  inequality,  34,  36,  48-51,  98 
Class  distinctions,  33-37,  40-41 
Classical  period  of  Athens,  4-6 
Climate,  8,  10-12 
Cloaks,  74 
Clubs,  99 

Colonnades,  26-28,  80 

Comfort  and  decency,  modern  and 
ancient  ideas  as  to,  56,  69-70 

Constitution  (see  also  Assembly,  Council, 
Officers,  Judicial  System)  ;  demo- 
cratic, 5-6 

Cooks,  81 

Couches,  64,  92 

Council  of  Five  Hundred,  162-165 

Cradles,  118 

Cremation,  177 

Crowding  in  city,  29,  55,  101 

Cushions,  64 

Cynosarges,  85,  87 

Dancing  girls,  79,  81 

Dead,  offerings  to  (see  under  Burial) 

Delphi,  oracle,  1,  144 

Demosthenes,  4,  5 

Dependence  on  surroundings,  8 

Dicasteries  (see  Judicial  System) 

Diet,  8,  9-10,  79-80,  94  ;  abstinence, 

80,  91-92,  95  ;  fish,  9,  80-81,  94,  98  ; 

meals  (see  Meals)  ;  poor  man's,  98  ; 

wine  (see  Wine) 
Dinners  (see  Banquets) 
Dionysus,  festivals,  146,  148 
Divorce,  53 
Doors,  58,  60 
Dorians,  3,  4 

Dowry  (see  under  Marriage) 

Drama,  148-160  ;  actors,  152-155,  157- 
159  ;  chorus,  152-153  ;  comedies,  154, 
159;  contests,  152,  155-156,  160 ; 
costumes  and  masks,  156-157  ;  connec- 


tion with  Dionysiac  worship,  146, 
152;  selection  of  plays,  152;  staging, 
149,  154,  156  ;  state  institution,  152- 
153  ;  theatres,  17,  146  -  152,  154, 
160,  165  ;  tragedies,  154 
Dress,  8,  10,  65,  69-78  ;  colours,  73-74, 
112,  113  ;  hair-dressing,  42,  83,  114- 
115,  116;  hats,  74-75,  112;  men's, 
69-78  ;  women's,  111-6 

Ecclesia  (see  Assembly) 

Education,  advanced,  124  ;  boys,  120- 
124  ;  girls,  51,  102  ;  physical  (see 
Physical  Training)  ;  schools  (see 
Schools) 

Egyptian  influence  on  art,  194-196,  202 
Election  by  lot,  163,  164 
Eleusis,  144 

Elgin  Marbles  23,  198,  202 
Ephebi  (see  Youths) 
Erechtheum  (see  under  Acropolis) 
Euripides,  5,  53 
Exposure  of  children,  117-118 

Factories,  47 
Fans,  115 

Fast  life,  97,  99-100 

Festivals,  religious,  109,  146-148 

Fish  (see  under  Diet) 

Food  (see  Diet) 

Fountains,  31-32 

Frescoes,  183 

Furniture,  64-66 

Gambling,  99 
Games,  87,  88 

Gods,  141,  195,  199  ;  multiplication, 
135-136,  138,  196  ;  prayers  to,  142- 
143  ;  sacrifices,  138,  141-143,  148 

Greater  Athens,  11-12 

Greece,  boundaries,  1-2 

Greeting,  manner,  79,  92 

Guests,  uninvited,  92-93,  100 

Gymnasia,  85-88 

Habits,  abstemious,  80,  91-92,  95 
Hair,  method  of  wearing,  42,  83,  114- 

115,  116 
Harbours  (see  also  Peiraeus),  13 
Hats,  74-75,  112 
Hercules,  Farnese,  188 
Hermes,  statues,  58,  188,  198,  202 
Himation  (see  Mantles) 
Home  life,  unimportance  to  men,  52, 

55,  101 


INDEX 


211 


Horse-racing,  147 
Hour  of  rising,  67-69 
Hour-glass,  85 

Houses,  8,  10,  32,  54-64  ;  cisterns,  63  ; 
country,  55  ;  courts,  58,  60-62  ; 
decoration,  56,  63  ;  doors,  58,  60  ; 
gardens,  62  ;  kitchens,  10,  63  ;  light- 
ing, 10  ;  number,  13  ;  porter,  59-60, 
61  ;  roof,  63  ;  smallness,  29,  54-56  ; 
upper  stories,  55,  57-58,  62 ;  vesti- 
bule, 58,  61  ;  windows,  56,  62  ; 
women's  apartments,  58,  62 

Hymettus,  13,  31 

Ilissus,  11,  13,  17,  31 

Impiety,  prosecutions  for,  144-145 

Information,  sources,  7 

Inns,  84 

Ionians,  3,  4,  51-52 

Judicial  system  (see  also  Trials)  ;  jury- 
men, 39,  162,  169,  170-171,  172; 
law  courts,  169-174 

Kitchens,  10,  62,  63 
Knowledge,  sources,  as  to  Athenian, 
life,  87 

Lamps,  65-66 
Language,  1,  3 
Laocoon,  188,  198 

Law,  clearness,  173  ;  courts  (see  under 

Judicial  System) 
Legislation,  mode,  168 
Life,  publicity,  9,  10,  52,  55,  101 
Literature,  5,  7,  197  ;  style,  189 
Litigation  (see  Trials) 
Long  Walls,  11,  13 
Lunch,  61,  69,  85 
Lyceum,  17,  85,  87 
Lysippus,  5,  181 

Mantles,  men's,  71,  72-73 ;  women's, 

112-113 
Marble  (see  also  Sculpture),  11 
Markets  (see  Agora) 
Marriage,  51-53,  104-107  ;  ceremonies, 

105-107  ;    dislike,    52,    104-105  ; 

divorce,  53  ;  dowry,  52-53,  104,  105  ; 

relations  between  husband  and  wife, 

105,  108-109,  110-111 
Meals,  61,  69  ;  breakfast,  69  ;  lunch, 

61,  69,  85  ;  dinner,  90-100 
Mercenaries,  129,  132 
Militia  (see  under  Army) 
Mines,  47 
Mirrors,  66 


Modernness  of  Athenians,  205-208 
Morals,  206-207  ;  uninfluenced  by  re- 
ligion, 138-139 
Moustaches,  83-84 

Music,  97-98,  1.47,  181,  183  ;  as  part 
of  education,  121,  123-124 

Names:  citizens,  40-41,  110-111,  118- 
119  ;  outlanders,  41  ;  slaves,  41  ; 
streets,  32 

National  differences  fostered,  8 

Navy,  130-133 

Nurses,  102,  119 

Odeum,  17,  28 
Officers,  public,"  162-164 
Olympian  games,  1,  146 
Open-air  life,  9,  10,  52,  55,  101 
Oracles,  144 
Ornaments,  115 

Outlanders,  34,  41-42  ;  citizenship  be- 
stowed on,  38,  42  ;  disabilities,  34, 
37,  38,  41-42  ;  names,  41  ;  numbers, 
37,  42  ;  tax  on,  34,  42 

Paedagogus,  120,  122 
Painted  Portico,  14,  27 
Painting,  181,  182-183 
Panathenaea,  147-148 
Parasols,  115 
Parrhasius,  182 

Parthenon  (see  under  Acropolis) 
Pay  for  public  duties,  50,  160,  165-166, 
168,  171 

Peiraeus,  11,  13,  28,  29-30,  37,  55,  165 

Pelasgians,  3-4 

Pericles,  4,  17 

Pheidias,  5,  21,  181,  199 

Philosophy,  61,  87-88,  137 

Physical  features,  9-17 

Physical  training,  86-87,  121, 124,  205  ; 

athletic  contests,  147  ;  effects  on  art, 

196-197 

Plato,  4,  5,  9,  17,  87,  119,  145,  205 
Pnyx,  16,  35,  40,  165 
Police,  40,  48 

Political  parties,  166-167,  205 
Polygnotus,  182 
Pompeii,  55 

Population,  13,  37  ;  classes,  33-36 
Porter,  house,  59-60,  61 
Porticoes  (see  Colonnades) 
Poseidon,  136-137 
Praxiteles,  5,  181,  189,  198,  202 
Prayers  (see  under  Gods) 


212 


LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  ATHENS 


Priests,  139-141 

Processions,  funeral,  176-177  ;  marriage, 

106-107  ;  religious,  109,  147-148 
Products,  9-10,  11 
Propylaea  (see  under  Acropolis) 
Protagoras,  145 
Public  burdens,  133,  152-153 

Quarries,  11 

Quarters  of  city,  32,  67 

Paces  in  Greece,  1-4 
Razors,  84 

Religion,  134-145  ;  attitude  of  state 
towards,  139-141  ;  confusion  in,  132- 
138  ;  conservatism  in,  135-136  ;  in- 
fluence on  art,  195  ;  influence  on 
morals,  138-139  ;  mixed  elements  in, 
135-136  ;  prosecutions  for  impiety, 
144-145  ;  superstitions  in,  137,  143- 
144  ;  toleration  in,  134,  144-145 

Rings,  77 

Romans,  removal  of  statues  by,  198 
Roofs,  28,  63 

Sacrifices,  138,  141-143,  148 
Sanitation,  30 
Schools,  120-124 

Sculpture,  181,  184-189,  195-204;  de- 
velopment, 183-184  ;  plenteousness, 
197-198  ;  principles,  183-189 

Shoes,  75-77,  115 

Shops,  54,  56,  64 

Slaves,  33-34,  42-48,  59  ;  attendance, 
78,  98  ;  citizenship  bestowed  on,  38  ; 
dress,  34  ;  names,  41  ;  numbers,  37, 
47  ;  prices,  46  ;  public,  40,  48  ; 
sources  of  supply,  34,  45-46  ;  treat- 
ment, 42-45,  46 

Soap,  89 

Social  inequality  (see  under  Citizens) 
Socrates,  5,  9,  87,  142,  145,  173 
Soil,  9  ;  products,  9-10,  11 
Sophocles,  5,  53 
Sparta,  2 

State,  conception  of,  36-37 

Statues  (see  also  Sculpture)  ;  painting 
of,  202-204 

Sticks,  walking,  77-78 

Streets,  29-30,  75  ;  names,  32  ;  narrow- 
ness, 29 


Sundials,  84-85 
Sunshades,  115 
Superstitions,  137,  143-144 

Tables,  65,  94  ;  mode  of  reclining  at, 
90,  93-94 

Temples,  21,  23-25,  197-198  ;  adorn- 
ment, 23,  182,  202-203;  priests, 
139-141  ;  votive  offerings,  143 

Theatre  (see  under  Drama) 

Thebes,  2 

Theseum,  16 

Thessaly,  2  ?  Is 

Thucydides,  5 

Time,  method  of  telling,  84-85 
Toleration,  religious,  134,  144-145 
Tombs,  177-180 
Topography,  11-17 
Toys,  102,  119-120 
Trade,  contempt  for,  49-50 
Translation,  methods,  205-206 
Trials,  check  to  reckless  litigation,  173  ; 

penalties,  172-173  ;  procedure,  169- 

173 

Tunics,  men's,  70-71,  74  ;  women's, 
111-112 

Vases,  183-192 
Victory,  temple  of,  14 

Walking,  correct  mode  of,  78-79 

Water-supply,  30-32 

Wine,  9-10,  95-96,  98  ;  libations,  95  ; 
moderation,  95-97,  ;  shops,  84 

Women,  amusements,  102-103, 109-110  ; 
divorce,  53  ;  dowry  (see  under 
Marriage)  ;  dress  (see  under  Dress)  ; 
education,  51,  102  ;  employments, 
51,  80,  107-109  ;  legal  status,  52  ; 
marriage  (see  Marriage) ;  position,  51- 
53, 101 ;  seclusion,  51-52,  90,  101-103 

Work,  attitude  towards,  49-50 

Wreaths,  funeral,  175,  176 

Xenophon,  5,  145 

Youths,  dress,  74;  fast  life,  99-100  ; 
military  training,  39,  124-126 

Zeus,  136,  138,  141,  199 
Zeuxis,  182 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  Clark,  Limited,  Edinburgh. 


GETTY  CENTER  LIBRARY 


3  3125  00956  1586 


